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Hinton Rowan Helper - The Negroes in Negroland - 1868
Hinton Rowan Helper - The Negroes in Negroland - 1868
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
THE
NEGROES IN NEGROLAND;
THE
NEGROES IN AMERICA;
AND
NEGROES GENERALLY.
ALSO,
A COMPILATION, BY
HINTON ROWAN HELPER,
A RATIONAL REPUBLICAN,
Author of "The Impending Crisis of the South," "Nojoque," and other writings
in behalf of a Free and White America.
"A compassion for that which is not and caunot be useful or lovely, is degrading and futile."
HALI-U WALDO EMERSON.
" Among the
negroes, no science has been developed, and few questions are ever discussed, except
those which have au intimate connection with the wants of the stomach."
DAVID LIVINGSTONE.
*'
It has been proved by measurements, by microscopes, by analyses, that the typical negro is some-
thing between a child, a dotard, and a beast. I cannot struggle against these sacred facts of science."
WitfwooD RKADK.
"Our country might well have shrunk from assuming the guardianship of the negro."
"
GEOKOE BANCROFT.
the strictly white races that are bearing
It is onward the flambeau of civilization, as displayed in
the Germanic families alone." JOSIAU CLARK NOIT.
NEW YORK:
p.
W. CAF^LETON
LONDON: S. LOW, SON, & CO.
MDCCCLXVIU.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1808, by
G. W. CAKLETON,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
TO
DEDICATED.
CONTENTS.
Cannibalism in Negroland
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
I.
...15
II.
Human Butcheries, and Human Sacrifices in Negroland, ..... 19
CHAPTER III.
Human Skulls as Sacred Relics and Ornaments in Negroland, .... 25
CHAPTER IV.
Blood-thirstiness and Barbarity of the Negroes in Negroland, . . . .29
CHAPTER
Slavery and the Slave-trade in Negroland, ........
V.
37
CHAPTER VI.
Heathenish Superstition and Witchcraft in Negroland, ..... 15
CHAPTER VII.
Fetichism, Priestcraft, and Idolatry in Negroland, ...... 57
CHAPTER
Rain Doctors, and Other Doctors in Negroland,
VIII.
....... 70
CHAPTER IX.
Nakedness, Shamelessness, and Prostitution in Negroland, . . . .75
CHAPTER X.
Drunkenness and Debauchery in Negroland, 79
CHAPTER XI.
Night Carousals, and Noisy and Nonsensical Actions in Negroland, . . 80
CHAPTER XII.
Inhospitality to Strangers, Begging, Extortion, and Robbery in Negroland, . 82
CHAPTER XIII.
Wrangling, Lawlessness, Penury, and Misery in Negroland, . . . .89
CHAPTER
Theft, as a Fine Art, among the Africans, ........
XIV.
94
CHAPTER XV.
Lying, as an Accomplishment, among the Africans, 97
CHAPTER XVI.
Duplicity and Venality of the Negroes in Negroland, ...... 98
CHAPTER XVII.
Revolting Voracity and Gluttony of the Negroes in Negroland, . . .100
VI CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER XVIII.
Dislike of their own Color by the Negroes in N egroland 102
CHAPTER XIX.
105
Courtship, Marriage, and Concubinage in Negroland,
CHAPTER XX.
Mumbo Jumbo in Negroland, 117
CHAPTER
Funeral and Burial Rites in Negroland, .........
XXI.
118
CHAPTER
Indolence and Improvidence of the Negroes, .......
XXII.
122
CHAPTER XXIII.
Timidity and Cowardice of the Negroes, 125
CHAPTER XXIV.
African Anecdotes, 130
CHAPTER XXIV.
, Utter Failure and Inntility of all Missionary Enterprises in Negroland, . . 134
CHAPTER XXVI.
Miscellaneous Peculiarities, Manners, Habits, and Customs, of the Negroes
in Negroland, 138
CHAPTER XXVII.
Huts, Hovels, and Holes (but no Houses) in Negroland, 152
CHAPTER
XXVIII.
Gradual Decrease, and Probable Extinction of the Negro Race, . . . 158
CHAPTER XXIX.
Natural, Repulsive, and Irreconcilable Points of Difference, Physical, Mental,
and Moral, between the Whites and the Blacks, 162
CHAPTER XXX.
American Writers on the Negro, 173
CHAPTER XXXI.
Mulattoes ;
the Offspring of Crimes against Nature, 216
CHAPTER XXXII.
Albinos, White Negroes, and Other Creatures of Preternatural Whiteness, . 223
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Increasing Pre-eminence and Predominance of the White Races, . . .227
Now, far more than at any time hitherto, the white people
of the United States, influenced by circumstances which are
well understood, seem to be particularly interested to know
precisely what manner of man the negro is. This is an
auspicious fact. It augurs favorably for the whole country.
What the people require now is light, information, knowl-
edge. Let them have this, and the great principles of
Virtue, Truth, Right, and Honor will be maintained. Only
let the masses of our people earnestly and fairly prosecute
INTRODUCTION. XI
not think and act in strict accordance with the just and pure
promptings here indicated, is, in reality, a most unworthy and
CHAPTER I.
CANNIBALISM IN NEGROLAND.
Europe with beef or mutton all prisoners of war, unless they can
:
they fatten them for slaughter, and at last sell them to the butchers.
To this savage barbarity they are so naturalized, that some slaves,
whether as weary of their lives, or to show their love to their
masters, will proffer themselves freely to be killed and eaten.
But that which is most inhuman, and beyond the ferocity of beasts,
is,that the father scruples not to eat his son, nor the son his father,
nor one brother the other, but take them by force, devouring their
flesh, the blood yet reeking hot between their teeth." Ogilby's
Africa, page 518.
15
16 CANNIBALISM IN NEGROLAND.
family, and repaid when they had a sick relation that universally ;
when they went to war, the dead and wounded were always eaten ;
that the hearts were claimed by the head men and that, on asking
;
them why they eat human flesh, they said it was better than any
other, and that the heart and breasts of a woman were the best
part of the body." Denham and QlappertorCs Africa, Vol. IV.,
page 262.
"
Many of Ibrahim's party had been frequent witnesses to acts
of cannibalism, during their residence among the Makkarikas.
They described these cannibals as remarkably good people, but
possessing a peculiar taste for dogs and human flesh. They ac-
companied the trading party in their razzias, and invariably ate
the bodies of the slain. The traders complained that they were
bad associates, as they insisted upon killing and eating the chil-
dren which the party wished to secure as slaves their custom ;
was to catch a child by its ankles, and to dash its head against
the ground ;
thus killed, they opened the abdomen, extracted the
stomach and intestines and tying the two ankles to the neck, they
;
carried the body by slinging over the shoulder, and thus returned
to camp, where they divided it by quartering, and boiling it in a
large pot. . . . One of the slave girls attempted to escape,
and her proprietor immediately fired at her with his musket, and
she fell wounded the ball had strack her in the side. The girl
;
was remarkably fat, and from the wound a large lump of yellow
fat exuded. No sooner had she fallen than the Makkarikas rushed
upon her in a crowd, and, seizing the fat, they tore it from the
wound in handfuls, the girl being still alive, while the crowd were
quarrelling for the disgusting prize. Others killed her with a
CANNIBALISM IN NEGROLAND. 17
lance, and at once divided her by cutting off the head, and split-
ting the body with their lances, used as knives, cutting longitudi-
nally from between the legs along the spine to the neck." Baker's
Great Basin of the Nile, page 201.
but none such as these, since the others only eat their enemies;
but these eat their own blood relations." African Explorations
by Eduardo Lopez, quoted by Huxley, in Man's Place in Nature,
page 55.
and the other nobles." Valdez's Africa, Vol. II., page 331.
took another body, conveyed it into the woods, cut it up, and
smoked the flesh, which they carried away with them. The cir-
cumstances made a great fuss among the Mpongwe, and even
the missionaries heard of it, but I never credited the stories till
now, though the facts were well authenticated by witnesses. In
fact, theFans seem regular ghouls, only they practise their horrid
custom unblushingly and in open day, and have no shame about
it. These stories seem so incredible, and even the fact that these
people actually buy and eat the corpses of their neighbors rest-
"
On going out next morning I saw a pile of ribs, leg and arm
bones, and skulls piled up at the back of my house, which looked
horrid enough to me. In fact, symptoms of cannibalism stare me
in the face wherever I go." Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa, page
106.
CHAPTER II.
ples. The king's apartment is paved, and the walls and roof
stuck over with these horrid trophies and, if a further supply
;
of the late sovereign, the sacrifice was continued weekly for three
months, consisting each time of two hundred slaves. The absurd
belief here entertained, that the rank of the deceased in the future
world is decided by the train which he carries along with him,
makes filial piety interested in promoting by this means the exal-
tation of a departed parent. On these occasions, the caboceers
and princes, in order to court royal favor, often rush out, seize the
first person they meet, and drag him in for sacrifice. While the
customs last, therefore, it is with trembling steps that any one
crosses his threshold ; and, when compelled to do so, he rushes
along with the utmost speed, dreading every instant the murder-
ous grasp which would consign him to death." Murray's African
Discoveries, page 204.
" The
practice of offering human sacrifices to appease evil spirits
is common ;
but in no place more frequent, or on a larger scale,
HUMAN BUTCHERIES AND SACRIFICES IN NEGROLAND. 21
" We find throughout all the country north of 20, which I con-
sider to be real negro, the custom of slaughtering victims to ac-
they imagine that those who have departed hence stand in need
of food, clothing, and other things, as in the present world and ;
"
To-day another human victim was sacrificed, on account of
the death of a person of rank. As I was going out of the town,
in the cool of the evening, I saw the poor creature lying on the
ground. The head was severed from the body, and lying at a
short distance from it several large turkey-buzzards were feast-
;
ing on the wounds, and rolling the head in the dust. He appeared
to be about eighteen years of age a strong, healthy youth, who
;
"
Throughout the day I heard the horrid sound of the death-
drum, and was told in the evening that about twenty-five human
victims had been sacrificed, some in the town, and some in the
suiTounding villages, the heads of those killed in the villages
being brought into the town in baskets. ...
I learned that
several more human victims had been immolated during the day,
but could not ascertain the exact number. The most accurate
account I could obtain was, that fifteen more had suffered making ;
allowed to lie naked and exposed in the streets, until they began
to decompose and such is the callous state of mind in which the
;
HUMAN BUTCHERIES AND SACRIFICES IN NEGROLAND. 23
people live, that many were walking about among the putrefying
bodies, their pipes, with
smoking amazing indifference." Free-
man's Africa, pages 53 and 54.
" The executioner, at one blow on the back of the neck, divided
the head from the body of the first culprit, with the exception of
a small portion of the skin, which was separated by passing the
knife underneath. Unfortunately, the second man was dreadfully
mangled, for the poor fellow, at the moment the blow was struck,
having raised his head, the knife struck in a slanting direction and
only made a large wound the next blow caught him on the back
;
of the head, when the brain protruded. The poor fellow strug-
gled violently. The third stroke caught him across the shoulders,
inflicting a dreadful gash. The next caught him on the neck,
which was twice repeated. The officer steadying the criminal
now lost his hold on account of the blood which rushed from the
blood-vessels on all who were near. The executioner, now quite
palsied, took hold of the head, and, after twisting it several times
round, separated it from the still convulsed and struggling trunk.
During the latter part of this disgusting execution the head pre-
sented an awful spectacle, the distortion of the features, and the
eyeballs completely upturned, giving it a horrid appearance.
The next man, poor fellow, with his eyes partially shut and head
drooping forward near to the ground, remained all this time in sus-
pense casting a partial glance on the head which was now close
;
to him, and the trunk dragged close past him, the blood still rush-
so fortunate, his head not being separated till after three strokes.
The body afterwards rolled over several times, when the blood
spurted over my face and clothes. The most disgusting part of
this abominable and barbarous execution was that of an old, ill-
looking wretch, who, like the numerous vultures, stood with a
small calabash in his hand, ready to catch the blood from each
individual, which he greedily devoured before it had escaped
one minute from the veins. After decapitation the body
. . .
is immediately
dragged off by the heels to a large pit at a con-
siderable distance from the town and thrown therein, and is im-
ravenous that they will almost take your victuals from you."
Duncan'sAfrica, Vol. I., pages 250 and 252.
suffer death, either from the effects of the sun, or from the fangs
of some hungry alligator or shark which may chance to find the
body. The circumstance of the hands and feet being just al-
lowed to be immersed in the water is considered by these deluded
people as necessary, and they are thereby rendered an easier
prey." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. II. page 315. ,
CHAPTER III.
" HUMAN skulls were built in the walls of the palace, about
half the skull projecting beyond the surface of the walls. After a
number of introductions, similar to those on the former days, the
king's mother entered the court, preceded by six women, carrying
large brass pans filled with skulls, with shank-bones fixed perpen-
dicularly to the outside of the pans. Another pan, covered with
scarlet cloth, as also two other pots of an oval shape, were carried
on the heads of females, with a skull placed on the top or over
the mouth of each. After parading these different vessels round
the palace-yard, they were placed on the ground, in front of sev-
eral calabashes (previously placed there), containing a number
of scalps." Duncan's Africa, Vol. I., page 253.
About ten yards in front of the place where his majesty lay,
3
26 HUMAN SKULLS AS SACRED RELICS AND ORNAMENTS.
His town was taken, and he himself made prisoner, by the female
.regiments, commanded by the female commander, Apadomey.
Many of the skulls still retained the hair. It appears that this
part of the human body has always been a favorite ornament on
the palace walls of Abomey, and even in the walls, entrances of
gateways and doorways." Duncan's Africa, Vol. II., page 276.
11
When a guest is entertained of whom presents are expected,
the host, in a quiet way, goes from time to time into the fetich-
house and scrapes a bone-powder from a favorite skull, and
little
becoming of one blood, you are naturally led to love them, and
grant them what they wish. It is not a pleasant subject of reflec-
tion, but I have no doubt been operated upon on previous jour-
food, and told Mayolo I cared very little to eat of the scraped
skull of his grandfather." Du GJiaillu's Ashango-Land, page 200.
" On a small
island, near the mouth of the Niger, the people
have some strange customs. They have a large town, of about
three thousand inhabitants their huts are built within mud walls,
;
" It is
revenge, as much as desire to perpetuate the remem-
brance of victory, which makes them eager for the skulls and
jawbones of their enemies, so that in a royal metropolis, walls,
and and thrones, and walking-sticks are everywhere lower-
floors,
ing with the hollow eyes of the dead. These sad, bare, and
whitened emblems of mortality and revenge present a curious and
startling spectacle, cresting and festooning the red clay walls
28 SUMAN SKULLS AS SACRED RELICS AND ORNAMENTS.
ting them to death, mounted their heads in the Bat oka fashion.
The old man who now lies in the middle of
perpetrated this deed
over his grave. One can-
his son's huts, with a lot of rotten ivory
not help feeling thankful that the reign of such wretches is over.
They inhabited the whole of this side of the country, and were
probably the barrier to the extension of the Portuguese commerce
in this direction. When looking at these skulls, I remarked to
Moyara that many of them were those of mere boys. He assented
readily, and pointed them out as such. I asked why his father
had killed boys. ' To show his fierceness,' was the answer. ' It
is fierceness to kill boys. 1 '
Yes ; they had no business here.'
When I told him that this probably would insure his own death if
the Matebele came again, he replied,
'
When I hear of their
ing with each other as to which should mount the greatest num-
ber of skulls in his village." Livingstone's Africa, page 569.
CHAPTER IV. .
3*
30 BLOOD-THIRSTINESS OF THE NEGROES.
" It is not so easy to offer any probable reason for the eagerness
to share in cruelty which glows in a negro's bosom. Its appall-
" It
is hard to make them feel that the shedding of human blood
isa great crime they must be conscious that it is wrong, but, hav-
;
"
The late Matiamvo sometimes indulged in the whim of run-
ning a muck in the town and beheading whomsoever he met, until
he had quite a heap of human heads. Matiamvo explained this
conduct by saying that his people were too many, and he wanted
to diminish them. He had absolute power of life and death."
Livingstone's Africa, page 341.
" When any one of these chiefs news of his death is not
dies, the
made known for one or two months afterwards and;
if any person
who has learned the fact of his death discloses the secret, he is
immediately decapitated, and his family and relatives sold into cap-
tivity. If there be no purchasers for them, they are all conducted
to the banks of the river, and there decapitated by the Samba Go-
lambole, or common executioner; the bodies are then thrown into
the river, and the heads are piled up at the entrance to the capital,
as a warning to all disclosers of state secrets." Valdez's Africa,
Vol. II.,pageZ\.
" The
guide, attached to the expedition on return from Ujiji,
had loitered behind for some days, because his slave girl was too
footsore to walk. When tired of waiting he cut off her her head,
for fear lest she should become gratis another man's property.
Burton's Africa, page 515.
"
Tembandumba, the Amazonian and cannibal queen of Congo,
commanded that all male children, all twins, and all infants whose
upper teeth appeared before their lower ones, should be killed by
their own mothers. From their bodies an ointment should be
made in the way which she would show. The female children
should be reared and instructed in war; and male prisoners,
before being killed and eaten, should be used for purposes of pro-
creation, so that there might be no future lack of female warriors.
Having concluded her harangue, with the publication of other laws
of minor importance, this young woman seized her child which
was feeding at her breast, flung him into a mortar, and pounded
him to a pulp. She flung this into a large earthen pot, adding
roots, leaves, and oils, and made the whole into an ointment, with
which she rubbed herself before them all, telling them that this
would render her invulnerable, and that now she could subdue the
universe. Immediately her subjects, seized with a savage enthu-
siasm, massacred all their male children, and immense quantities
of this human ointment were made. . . . It is clear enough
that Tembandumba wished to found an empire of Amazons, such
as we read of as existing among the Scythians, in the forests of
South America, and in Central Africa. She not only enjoined the
massacre of male children, she forbade the eating of woman's
flesh. But she had to conquer an instinct in order to carry out
her views she fought against nature, and in time she was sub-
;
custom, the two villages join, and together march upon the enemy.
In effect, to gain a village to a certain side in a quarrel, that side
murders one of its men or women, with a purpose of retaliation
on somebody else." Du Cliaillufs Equatorial Africa, page 74.
" A number of old women had been taken in the general slave
hunt ;
these could not walk sufficiently fast to keep up with their
victors during the return march they had accordingly all been
;
seeing a child of his own, two years old, at hand, when the oracle
announced the decree, snatched the infant from his mother's arms,
threw it into a rice mortar, and, with a pestle, mashed it to death.
The sacrifice over, a sortie was ordered. The infuriate and starv-
ing savages, roused by the oracle and inflamed by the bloody
scene, rushed forth tumultuously. Amarar, armed with the
pestle, still warm and reeking with his infant's blood, was fore-
most in the onset. The besiegers gave way and fled the town ;
and the soothsayer rewarded with a slave for his barbarous pre-
diction At another time, Amarar was on the point of attacking
!
Again the wizard was consulted, when the mysterious oracle de-
clared that the chief " could not conquer till he returned once more to
"
his mother's womb ! That night Amara committed the blackest
of incests; but his party was repulsed, and the false prophet
stoned to death." Canofs Twenty Tears of an African Slaver,
page 333.
BLOOD-THIRSTINESS OF THE NEGROES. 35
"
By degrees the warriors dropped in around their chieftain.
A my quarters, was the
palaver-house, immediately in front of
general rendezvous and scarcely a bushman appeared without
;
sion of women, whose naked limbs were smeared with chalk and
ochre, poured into the palaver-house to join the beastly rites.
Each of these devils was armed with a knife, and bore in her
hand some cannibal trophy. Jen-Ken's wife, a corpulent wench
of forty-five, dragged along the ground, by a single limb, the
slimy corpse of an infant ripped alive from its mother's womb.
As her eyes met those of her husband, the two fiends yelled forth
a shout of mutual joy, while the lifeless babe was tossed in the
air and caught as jt descended on the point of a spear. Then
36 BLOOD-THIRSTINESS OF THE NEGROES.
slay. There was a devilish spell in the tragic scene that fascinat-
ed my eyes to the spot. A slow, lingering, tormenting mutilation
was practised on the living, as well as on the dead and, in every
;
After the last victim yielded his life, it did not require long to
kindle a fire, produce the requisite utensils, and fill the air with
the odor of human flesh. Yet, before the various messes were
half broiled, every mouth was tearing the delicate morsels with
shouts of joy, denoting the combined satisfaction of revenge and
appetite In the midst of this appalling scene, I heard a fresh
!
very after this last attempt, except that the bushmen packed
little
CHAPTER V.
"!T seems quite natural that every one, even the most thought-
less barbarian, would feel at least some slight emotion on being
exiled from his native country, and enslaved. But so far is this
from being the case, that Africans, generally speaking, betray
the most perfect indifference on losing their liberty, and being de-
prived of their relatives ; while love of country is seemingly as
great a stranger to their breasts as social tenderness and domes-
tic affection." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. II., page 208.
ter are sold to purchase provisions for the rest of the family."
4
38 SLA VER T AND SLA VE-TRADE IN NEGROLAND.
him to me for forty days' provision for herself and the rest of her
family; I have bought another boy in the same manner." Mun-
go Park's Travels in Africa, page 116.
"The slave-market is held in two long sheds, one for males, the
other for females, where they are seated in rows, and carefully
decked out for the exhibition ; the owner or one of his trusty slaves
sitting near them. Young or old, plump or withered, beautiful
or ugly, are sold without distinction ; but, in other respects, the
buyer inspects them with the utmost attention, and somewhat in
the same manner as a volunteer seaman is examined by a surgeon
on entering the navy he looks at the tongue, teeth, eyes, and
;
the women, especially, singing with the greatest glee all the time
they are at work." Clappertori's Africa, Vol. IV., page 36.
"
They had nearly a hundred slaves, the greater part female,
and girls of from twelve to eighteen years of age, some of them
from Nyfee, and still further to the West, of a deep copper color,
and beautifully formed; but few of these were ironed. The
males, who were mostly young, were linked together in couples
by iron rings around their legs yet they laughed, and seemed in
;
" A slave in Gabun was once asked why he did not take the
money, which he was known to have accumulated, and ransom
himself. His reply was, '
I have as much freedom as I want,
and "
I prefer tobuy a slave to wait upon me.' Wilson's Africa,
page 272.
personal liberty; nor does the same odium attach to the term
slave as is attached to it among civilized men. The African sees
40 SLA VER T AND SLA VE-TRADE IN NEGROLAND.
"
Slavery exists on an immense scale in Adamawa, and there
are many private individuals who have more than a thousand
slaves. The only articles of export at present are slaves and
1
"
ivory. Earth's Africa, Vol. II., page 190.
44
With the abolition of the slave-trade all along the northern
and south-western coast of Africa, slaves will cease to be brought
down to the coast, and in this way a great deal of the mischief
and misery necessarily resulting from this inhuman traffic will be
cut off. But this, unfortunately, forms only a small part of the
evil. There can be no doubt that the most horrible topic connected
with slavery is slave-hunting; and this is earned on, not only
for the purpose of supplying the foreign market, but, in a far more
extensive degree, for supplying the wants of domestic slavery."
Earth's Africa, Vol. I., page 12.
" A
large number of slaves had been caught this day, and in
the course of the evening, after some skirmishing, in which three
Bonu horsemen were killed, a great many others were brought
in; altogether they were said to have taken one thousand, and
there were certainly not less than five hundred. To our utmost
horror, not less than one hundred and seventy full-grown men
were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of
them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been severed
from the body." Earth's Africa, Vol. II., page 369.
" In times of
necessity, a man will part with his parents, wives,
and children, and when they fail, he will sell himself without
SLAVERY AND SLAVE-TRADE IN NEGROLAND. 41
shame. As has been observed among inany tribes the uncle has
a right to dispose of his nephews and nieces." Burton's Africa,
page 515.
" The
good qualities given to the negro by the bounty of nature,
have served only to make him a slave, trodden down by every
remorseless foot, and to brand him for ages with the epithet of
outcast; the marked unceasing proof of a curse, as old as the
origin of society, not even deserving human forbearance And
!
true it is, that the worst slavery is his lot, even at home, for he is
there exposed to the constant peril of becoming also a victim,
slaughtered with the most revolting torments. Tyrant of his
blood, he traffics in slavery as it were merchandise makes
;
war
purposely to capture neighbors, and sell even his own wives and
children." Smith's Natural History of the Human Species, page
197.
the floors of the hut to search for iron hoes, which are generally
thus concealed, as the greatest treasure of the negroes; the
granaries are overturned and wantonly destroyed, and the hands
are cut off the bodies of the slain, the more easily to detach the
copper and iron bracelets that are usually worn." Baker's Great
Basin of the Nile, page 13.
" The
Cassangas, the Banhuns, and all the other neighboring
tribes and nations, punish all crimes by perpetual banishment.
In such cases they consider it more advantageous to dispose of
their convicts by selling them to strangers than to bear the burthen
of their support. Thus they reap a rich harvest themselves, and,
at the same
time, encourage that detestable traffic, the slave-trade.
To such an extent, indeed, does their cupidity lead them, that
they outrage all the laws of justice and humanity. When any
person comes under the lash of their sanguinary laws, he himself
is not alone exposed to punishment, but his Avhole family is in-
volved in ruin along with him." Voided s Africa, Vol. I., page 293.
in the produce of the sale, for they have rights also in the
"
It would be a task of many pages, if I attempted to give a full
account of the origin and causes of slavery in Africa. As a na-
tional institution, it seems to have existed always. Africans have
been bondsmen everywhere, and the oldest monuments bear their
images linked with menial toils and absolute servitude. . . .
Man, in truth, has become the coin of Africa, and the legal tender
of a brutal trade. . . . Five-sixths of the population are in
chains." Canot's Twenty Tears of the African Slaver, page 126.
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND. 45
CHAPTER VI.
' '
ONE of the Africans' deep-rooted superstitions is witchcraft,
to the operation of which they generally ascribe disease and
death, the very infirmities of age being attributed to the same
influence. The doctor, being sent for upon emergencies of this
nature, gives some root or drug to his patient, accompanying the
administration of it with a farcical expression of countenance, and
a mysterious assumption of manner, pretending to charm from the
sufferer some noxious reptile, by which he alleges that the malady
is occasioned, and contriving, at the same time, secretly to pro-
duce one, which supposed to have been withdrawn from the
is
'
crease, another doctor, called the discoverer of bewitching
matter, is then summoned, who professes to discover the party
1
shark, and devour all the fish in their rivers. By his magical
arts he can keep back the showers, and fill the land with want
and distress. The lightnings obey his commands, and he need
only wave his wand to call forth the pestilence from its lurking-
place. The sea is lashed into fury, and the storm rages to exe-
cute his behests. In short, there is nothing too hard for the
machinations of witchcraft. Sickness, poverty, insanity, and al-
most every evil incident to human life, are ascribed to its agency."
Wilson's Africa, page 222.
"
Every death which occurs in the community is ascribed to
witchcraft, and some one, consequently, is guilty of the wicked
deed. The priesthood go to work to find out the guilty person.
It may be a brother, a sister, a father, and, in a few extreme
page 223.
"The intercourse which the natives have had with white men
does not seem to have much ameliorated their condition. A great
number of persons are reported to lose their lives annually in dif-
ferent districts of Angola by the cruel superstitions to which they
are addicted and the Portuguese authorities either
;
know nothing
of them, or are unable to prevent their occurrence. The natives
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND. 47
in the pen, beats the ground with its tail, is treated in the same
way. It is thought to be calling death to visit the tribe. When
I was coming through Londa, my men carried a great number of
fowls, of a larger breed than any they had at home. If one
crowed before midnight, it had been guilty of tlolo,' and was
'
killed. The men often carried them sitting on their guns, and if
one began to crow in a forest, the owner would give it a beating,
by way of teaching it not to be guilty of crowing at unseasonable
" When a
person of influence is taken ill, or dies, the cause is
eagerly sought after, not in the nature of the disease, but in some
person who was at enmity with the deceased, or who had acted in
some way to excite suspicion. This was very natural in them, as
they did not believe in an overruling Providence. It was the
universal belief, as well as their wish, that men would live alway,
48 SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND.
" At the
different towns and villages through which we passed,
they brought to us all the sick to be cured. Nor was it the sick
alone who sought advice, but men and women of all descriptions,
the former for some remedy against impotency, and the latter
to remove sterility. Many came for preventives against appre-
hended or barely possible calamities and, in anticipation of the
;
" At
my instance, Benderachmani sent a courier to Nyffee, to
endeavor to recover Mr. Hornemann's manuscripts, for which I
offered him a reward of a hundred dollars but on my return from
;
hyena, which is
supposed
to possess particularly healing virtues."
Anderssorfs Africa,, page 173.
"On other portions of the coast their customs are more cruel
about witchcraft than among the Greboes. Any one, once accused
of witchcraft, is burnt most cruelly. In some places a slow fire is
made, and four posts sunk into the ground, at certain distances,
the person tied hands and feet to these posts, and suspended over
the fire, thus being slowly burnt ; sometimes they are left to die
there at other times they are taken down before death, cast into
;
the bush, and left to perish miserably. No one must pity a witch.
Sometimes they torture them a different fashion they are fast- :
ened down so that they cannot move, and then red-hot coals are
placed on different parts of the body, and there left to eat into the
flesh." Brittari's Every-Day Life in Africa, page 344.
"
They are believers in witchcraft to an unlimited extent; but
what, they understand by the term is very difficult to say. I once
obtained the character of a wizard by mixing a seidlitz-powder,
and drinking it off during effervescence, for the spectators took it
for granted that the water was boiling." Draysorfs Africa, page
36.
" In times of
tribulation, the magician, if he ascertains a war is
projected, by inspecting the blood and bones of a fowl which he
has flayed for that purpose, flays a young child, and, having laid
it lengthwise on a path, directs all the warriors, on proceeding to
" To
prevent any evil approaching their dwellings, a squashed
frog, or any other such absurdity, when placed on the back, is
considered a specific." Speke's Africa, page 22.
" The
king was surrounded by sorcerers, both men and women.
These people were distinguished from others by witch-like chap-
lets of various dried roots worn upon the head some of them had
;
1
dried lizards, crocodiles' teeth, lions claws and minute tortoise-
shells, added to their collection of charms. They could havo
subscribed to the witches' caldron of Macbeth,
"
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of .bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND. 51
me whether it was true (as was rumored in the town, and as the
people had told him) that, as soon as a thunder-storm was
gathering, and when the clouds appeared in the sky, I went out
of my house and made the clouds withdraw for they had assured
;
page 509.
" In this
part of Africa are a sort of screech-owls, which in the
night make a very dismal noise, and are taken by the natives for
witches. If one of these birds happens to come into a town at
night, the people are all up firing at it and as I do not find that
;
they ever had the good fortune to shoot any of them, the poor
creatures still continue in the opinion of their being witches."
Moore's Inland Parts of Africa, page 107.
"With the aid of slavery and black magic, they render their
subjects' lives as precarious as they well can ; no one, especially
in old age, is safe from being burned at a day's notice."
Burton's Africa, page 96.
" The child who cuts the two upper incisors before the lower,
iseither put to death, or is given away, or sold to the slave-mer-
chant, under the impression that it will bring disease,
calamity,
and death into the household." Burton's Africa, page 94.
dirty little gourds which he wears in a bunch round his waist, and
the following is the usual programme when the oracle is to be
consulted The magician brings his implements in a bag of
:
matting ;
his demeanor is serious as the occasion he is carefully
;
path, or if even a stick falls across it, they return and have re-
course to their diviners, to interpret this formidable omen. Hav-
ing anointed themselves with some preparation of aromatic herbs
and roots, which have for a certain pei'iod been buried under their
beds, they consider that they may proceed on their journey with-
out danger." Voided s Africa, Vol. II., page 330.
"
Superstition seems in these countries to have run wild, and
every man believes what his fancy, by some accident, most forci-
bly presents to him as hurtful or beneficial." Du Ckaillu's Equa-
torial Africa, page 383.
5*
54 SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND.
"
If the African is once possessed with the belief that he is be-
witched, his nature seems to change. He becomes suspicious of
his dearest friends. The father dreads his children the son his ;
wonderful and frightful dreams, which all point to the fact that
the village is full of wicked sorcerers. Gradually the village
becomes infected by his fears. The people grow suspicious.
itself
wait for a death, but begin at once the work of butchering those
on whom public suspicion is fastened. At least seventy-five per
cent, of the deaths in all the tribes are murders for supposed sor-
came out of his house and danced along the street, his face and
body painted in black, red, and white, and spotted all over with
"
Greegrees are generally worn about the neck or waist are ;
made of the skins of rare animals, of the claws of birds, the teetlr
of crocodiles or leopards, of the dried flesh and brains of animals,
of the feathers of rare birds, of the ashes of certain kinds of wood,
of the skin and bones of serpents, etc., etc. Every greegree haa
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN NEGROLAND. 55
chain about his neck, no bullet can hit him. If the charm fails,
his faith is none the less firm, for then it is plain that some po-
tent and wicked sorcerer has worked a too powerful counter-
"Guessing the rascals had killed the poor old man, whom
they denounced as a wizard, and turning my step toward the
river, I was met by the crowd returning, every man armed with
axe, knife, cutlass, or spear, and these weapons and their own
hands, and arms, and bodies, all sprinkled with the blood of their
victim. In their frenzy they had tied the poor wizard to a log
near the river bank, and then deliberately hacked him into many
pieces. They finished by splitting open his skull and scattering
the brains in the water." Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa, page 63.
had been in contact with the beef. Indeed they are all religiously
scrupulous in this matter; and I found, on inquiry afterward, that
scarce a man can be found to whom some article of food is not
'
roondah.' Some dare not taste crocodile, some hippopotamus,
some monkey, some boa, some Avild pig, and all from this same
belief. They will literally suffer the pangs of starvation rather
than break through this prejudice and they firmly believe that if
;
entirely branchless, till the top reached far above all the surround-
ing trees. There at the top the branches were spread out some-
what an umbrella, but could not give much shade, being so
like
"
The morning before we set out, we accidentally stumbled
across one of those acts of barbarism which chill the blood of a
civilized man, though but slightly regarded by the negroes. I
was hunting in the woods near the village, and saw sitting on a
tree at some distance a pair of beautiful green pigeons, which I
wanted much for my collection of birds. By dint of much exer-
tion, Ipenetrated the jungle to the foot of the tree, and here a
ghastly sight met my eyes. It was the corpse of a woman, young
evidently, and with features once mild and good. She had beeii
FET1CHISM, PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY. 57
CHAPTER VII.
arise, and he
is beset with perplexities, he will range at will, as
thus we find one who will not taste a bit of chicken, another an
egg, a turkey, and so on and this abstinence from a particular
;
species of food descends to the children, who are under the neces-
sity of observing a similar abstinence." CruickshanJc'a Africa,
Vol. IL, page 133.
page 128.
or wood ;
seeds of plants ;
ashes of various substances and I ;
cannot tell what move. From the great variety and plenty of
60 FETICHISM) PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY.
" This
evening I went to see the village idol (the patron saint
as it may be called), and to witness a great ceremony in the
sacred house. As with the Aviia and other tribes, the idol was a
monstrous and indecent representation of a female figure in wood.
I had remarked that the further I travelled toward the interior,
the coarser these wooden idols were, and the more roughly they
were sculptured. This idol was kept at the end of a long, nar-
row, and low hut, forty or fifty feet long, and ten feet broad, and
was painted in red, white, and black colors. When I entered the
hut it was full of Ashango people, ranged in order on each side,
with lighted torches stuck in the ground before them. Amongst
them were conspicuous two priests, dressed in clothes of vegeta-
ble fibre, with their skins painted grotesquely in various colors,
one side of the face red, the other white, and in the middle of the
breast a broad yellow sti-ipe; the circuit of the eye was also
daubed with paint. These colors are made by boiling various
kinds of wood, and mixing the decoction with clay. The rest of
the Ashangos were also streaked and daubed with various colors,
and, by the light of their toi'ches, they looked like a troop of dev-
ils assembled in the lower
regions to celebrate some diabolical
rite. Around their legs were bound white leaves from the heart
of the palm-tree ;
some wore feathers, others had leaves twisted
in the shape of horns behind their ears, and all had a bundle of
" As we came
away from Mouina's village, a witch-doctor, who
had been sent for, arrived, and all Mouina's wives went forth
into the fields that morning fasting. There they would be com-
pelled to drink an infusion of a plant named goho,' which is used
'
in thisway : When a man suspects that any of his wives has be-
witched him, he sends for the witch-doctor and all the wives go
;
forth into the field, and remain fasting till that person has made
an infusion cf the plant. They all drink it,
each one holding up.
FETIGHISM, PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY. 61
" At different
points in our course we came upon votive offer-
ings to the Barimo. These usually consisted of food and every
;
deserted village still contained the idols and little sheds with pots
of medicine in them. One afternoon we passed a small frame
house, with the head of an ox in it as an object of worship. The
dreary uniformity of gloomy forests and open flats must have a
depressing influence on the minds of the people. Some villages
appear more superstitious than others, if we may judge from the
greater number of idols they contain." Livingstone's Africa, page
503.
up into the belief that his Satanic majesty had possession of her.
She threw herself upon the ground in all directions, and imitated
the cries of various animals. Her actions were, however, some-
what regulated by a man tapping upon a kettle with a piece of
wood, beating tune to her wild manoeuvres. After some delay,
6
62 FETICniSM, PRIESTCRAFT) AND IDOLATRY.
page 286.
" At the back of our hut stands a fetich god, in a small thatched
hut, supported by four wooden pillars, which is watched contin-
ually by two boys and a woman. We were desired to roast our
bullock under him, that he might enjoy the savory smell of the
smoking meat, some of which he might also be able to eat, if he
desired. We were particularly enjoined to roast no yams under
him, as they were considered by the natives too poor a diet to
offer to their deity." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. II., page
163.
" This
day a long and gay procession, formed by the female
followers of the ancient religion of the country, passed through
the town, walking and dancing alternately, with large-spreading
branches of trees in their hands. The priestess, at the time we
saw had just swallowed fetich water, and was carried on the
her,
shoulders of one of the devotees, who was assisted by two female
companions, supporting the trembling hands and arms of their
mistress. Her body was convulsed all over, and her features
"
Immediately opposite to the first square, which forms the en-
trance to the chief's residence, stands a small tree, pi-ofusely dec-
orated with human skulls and bones. This tree is considered by
the people as fetich, or sacred ; and is supposed to possess the
virtue of preventing the evil spirit from entering the chiefs resi-
dence. Near the tree stands the house which is inhabited by
fetich priests, a class of beings certainly in the most savage con-
dition of nature that it is possible to imagine. The fetich priests of
Brass town chalked themselves from head to foot, besides dressing
after a fashion of their own but these fellows outdo them by far,
;
and make themselves the most hideous and disgusting objects pos-
sible. Whether it may be with the idea of personifying the evil
spirit they are so afraid of, I could not learn ;
but they go about
the town with a human skull fastened over their face, so that they
can see tlu-ough the eye-holes this is surmounted by a pair of
;
mother the tail shows that the criminal is the wife, the thighs the
;
concubines, and the injured shanks or feet the other slaves. Hav-
ing fixed upon the class of the criminals, they are collected to-
gether by the priest, who, after similarly dosing a second hen,
throws her up into the air above the heads of the crowd, and
singles out the person upon whom she alights. Confession is ex-
torted by tying the thumb backward till it touches the wrist, or by
some equally barbarous mode of question. The consequence of
condemnation is certain and immediate death the mode is chosen
;
" The
Shangalla have but one language, and of a very guttural
pronunciation. They worship various trees, serpents, the moon,
planets, and stars in certain positions, which I never could so per-
understand as to give any account of them. A star passing
fectly
near the horns of the moon denotes the coming of an 'enemy.
They have priests, or rather diviners but it would seem that these
;
are looked upon as servants of the evil being, rather than of the
good. They prophesy bad events, and think they can afflict their
enemies with sickness, even at a distance." Sruce's Travels, Vol.
11
At Whydah I found the natives addicted to a very grovelling
FETICHISM, PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY. 65
the whites who are here Smith's sickness is a piece of your work.
!
You want his company, for he is a good man but our king does ;
not want to lose him, and you can't have him yet.' Then digging
a hole over the grave, he poured into it the articles which he had
brought, and told him that if he needed these things, he gave
them with good-will, but he must not expect to get Smith. The
factor died notwithstanding." Footers Africa and the American
Flag, page 58.
" The
purposes for which fetiches are used are almost without
number. One guards against sickness, another against drought,
and a third against the disasters of war. One is used to draw
6*
66 FETICniSM, PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY.
down rain, another secures good crops, and a third fills the sea
and rivers with fishes, and makes them willing to be taken in the
fishermen's net. Insanity is cured by fetiches, the sterility of
women removed, and there is scarcely a single evil incident to
is
human life which may not be overcome by this means the only ;
village over the door of every house, and around the neck of
;
212. *
" On some
parts of the Gold Coast the crocodile is sacred a ;
with white clay he had a large iron chain hanging around his
;
knife, about fifteen inches long, and two and half broad. Some-
times he danced with many frantic gestures and at other times
;
plenty; and let there be nobody in the world but you and me.'
On meeting a serpent in the road, a woman will take off some of
her beads and offer them as a present or sacrifice, in token of ven-
eration. They are regarded as representing, in some way, their
departed ancestors and hence, one has been heard addressing a
;
" The chief objects of worship in Whydah are snakes and a large
cottonwood-tree. There is a snake-house which I used to go often
to see. The snakes are of the boa species, and are from five to
fifteen feet in length. You can almost always see them crawling
FETICHISM, PRIESTCRAFT, AND IDOLATRY. 69
about the streets. When the natives see them they fall down and
kiss the earth. They are perfectly harmless, as I have often seen
the natives take them up and carry them back to the fetich-house.
It is not at all unfrequent to find them on the mat alongside of you
in the morning, as the huts are without doors. I had my lodging
in what was once an English fort, but is now in ruins, and is a fa-
vorite resort of the snakes. I never found one in my room, but
one morning, upon looking in the room adjoining mine, I found
one almost seven feet long. The penalty for killing one is for
a white person the price of sixty slaves; for a native, he is
shut up in a bamboo house, and then the house is set on fire. The
poor fellow has the privilege of getting out if he can, and running for
the lagoon, a distance of two miles, followed by the mob, and if
he reaches the water he is free. But very few can ever avail
themselves of this water cure. It is a great dodge with the fetich-
man, if he knows that you are peculiarly averse to this kind of
god, to bring them near your house and put -them down, knowing
they will enter, and he will be sent for to come and take them
away, for which he gets a few strings of cowries." West's Afri-
can Correspondence of the Boston Post, 1859.
" We
passed along a narrow path some distance, till we came
to two one on each side of the path, with a small
sticks, stuck up,
piece of white cotton rag on the top of each. The boys declared
that it would be at the peril of my life if I proceeded any further
in that direction, for this was the road to a fetich-house and the ;
" The snake is also a fetich or idol here and houses are built
;
70 RAIN-DOCTORS AND OTHER DOCTORS.
page 126.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gumming s Africa,
Vol. IL, page 64.
way that this dragging to a distance the remains of the dead horse
prevented the rain coming and the chief above named actually
;
sent men, with leathern cords, to drag it again to the village, and
there it was placed, at no great distance from Mr. Lemne's house,
"
and left to decay ! Freeman's Africa, page 269.
"
They are subject to a variety of diseases which baffle the skill
of their medical advisers, who, in such cases, have recourse to
smearing the patient with cow-dung, and keeping up his spirits
with the constant excitement of dancing and singing within his
hut." Steedmari's Africa, Vol. I., page 267.
\He sat on a box or stool, before which stood another box con-
4
face was daubed with streaks of black^ white, and red and, of ;
CHAPTER IX.
" The
Shangalla of both sexes, while single, go entirely naked ;
the married men, indeed, have a very slender covering about
their waist, and married women the same. Young men and
young women, till long past the age of puberty, are totally
uncovered, and in constant conversation and habits with each
other, in woods and solitudes, free from constraint, and without
any punishment annexed to the transgression." Bruce's Africa,
Vol. II., page 558.
'*
Among the worst characteristics of Kaffir society, is its great
incontinence. Most young women are frequently and forcibly
violated before marriage ; and widows are considered public prop-
erty. When the chiefs wish to carry any particular point, they
seize a number of young women, and give them up to their wild
warriors. This I do not dunk has been noticed before in any
account of the Kaffirs and, with ' wholesale and periodical rape,*
;
were detected ; and the injured husband secured the object of his
desires.*' Alexander'* Africa, Vol. I., page 397.
" The women clothe themselves better than the Balonda, but
the men go in puris naturalibns. They walk about without the
smallest sense of shame. They have even lost the tradition of
the *
fig-leaf.* I asked a fine, large-bodied old man if he did not
think it would be better to adopt a little covering. He looked
with a pitying leer, and laughed with surprise at my thinking him
at all indecent; he evidently considered himself above such weak
superstition. I told him that, on my return, I should have my
family with me, and no one must come near us in that state.
What shall we put on, we having no clothing? It was con-^
sidered a good joke when I told them that, if they had nothing
else, they must put on a bunch of grass.** Livingstone'* Africa,
page 590.
rears. A
sense of shame or modesty seems altogether unknown
or disregarded ; nor is it unusual to find ten or a dozen of both
genders huddled promiscuously beneath a roof whose walls an
not more than fifteen feet square. True to his nature, a Vey
bnshman rises in the morning to swallow his rice, and aml
back to his mat, which where
is invariably placed in the sunshine,
"The women in all the tribes are much given to intrigue, and
chastity is an unknown virtue." D* duuU*s Equatorial Africa*
" Some of their customs are so obscene that even the record of
them would be inadmissible here.11 Talda* Africa, Vol. XT.,
page 163.
4
The womenof Inasamet not only made the first advances,
but, what worse,
is they were offered even by the men, their
brethren or husbands. Even those among the men whose behavior
was least vile and revolting did not cease urging us to engage
with the women, who failed not to present themselves soon after-
wards. It could scarcely be taken as a joke. Some of the
women were immensely fat, particularly in the hinder regions."
Earth's Africa, Vol. I., page 408.
CHAPTER X.
" THE
large quantity of palm-trees in and around the village
furnishes the inhabitants of Mokaba with a ready supply of their
favorite drink, palm-wine ; for, as I have said before, they are a
" The
king, as usual, was drunk when I arrived. Indeed, he
was too tipsy to stand on his legs nevertheless, he was bullying
;
and boasting in a loud tone of voice. I had not been in his place
long before he ordered another calabash full of palm-wine, and
drank off about a gallon of it. This finished him up for the clay ;
he fell back into the arms of his loving wives, ejaculating many
times,
'
I am a big king I am a big king
! ! The voice soon be-
'
" The
king's usual way of living is to sleep all day, till toward
sunset then he gets up to drink, and goes to sleep again till mid-
;
night then he rises and eats, and if he has any strong liquors,
;
will sit and drink till daylight, and then eat, and go to sleep again.
When he is well stocked with liquor, he will sit and drink for five
or six days together, and not eat one morsel of anything in all
80 WIGHT CAROUSALS, ETC., IN NEGEOLAND.
daytime, and returns in the night, and sets fire to three parts of
it,and sets guards at the fourth to seize the people as they run
out from the fire. He then ties their arms behind them, and
inarches them to the place where he sells them into slavery."
Moore's Inland Parts of Africa, page 87.
CHAPTER XI.
" THE people usually show their joy and work off their excite-
ment and songs. The dance consists of the men stand-
in dances
it, then lift the other and give one stamp with that; this is the
only movement in common. The arms and head are often thrown
about, also, in every direction ; and all this time the roaring is
kept up with the utmost possible vigor; the continual stamping
makes a cloud of dust ascend, and they leave a deep ring in the
ground where they stood. If the same were witnessed in the
asylum it would be nothing out of the way, and quite ap-
lunatic
they thrust foilh their necks like hissing geese to vaiy the pros-
pect." Burton's Africa, page 359.
"On the spot were the people assembled, with every instru-
ment capable of making a noise which could be procured in the
whole town. They had formed themselves into a large treble
circle, and continued running round with amazing velocity, cry-
ing, shouting, and groaning with all their might. They tossed
and flung their heads about, twisted their bodies into all manner
of contortions, jumped into the air, stamped with their feet on the
ground, and flourished their hands above their heads. No scene
in the romance of Robinson Crusoe was so wild and savage as
this. Little boys and girls were outside the ring, running to and
ers again were blowing on bullock's horns and, in the short in-
;
CHAPTER XII.
the hand that feeds him. He will, perhaps, lament for a night
the death of a parent or a child, but the morrow will find him thor-
oughly comforted. The name of hospitality, except for interested
motives, is unknown to him. What will you give me ? is his '
" The
curiosity of these people, and the little ceremony with
INHOSPITALITY TO STRANGERS, ETC. 83
" The
Wagogo are importunate beggars, who specify then? long
listof wants without stint or shame their principal demand is to-
;
bacco, which does not grow in the land and they resemble the
;
" In
proportion as the traveller advances into the interior, he
humane, or rather less human. The Wavinza,
finds the people less
the Wajiji, and other lakist tribes, much resemble one another.
They are extortionate, violent, and revengeful barbarians no ;
M From the
highest to the lowest, all classes are most pertina-
cious beggars. Whatsoever is seen is surely demanded, guns,
knives, scissors, beads, cloth, mirrors, and dollars. The love of
acquiring property stifles every sense of shame and no com- ;
punction is felt in asking for the cloak from off the back, or in
carrying it away during a pitiless storm." Harris's Adventures
in Africa, page 299.
"
They are a people remarkable for their disregard for truth, a
wickedness which I regret to state I found very prevalent in South-
ern Africa. They are also great beggars, generally commencing
'
by soliciting for trexels,' a trexel being a pound of tea or coffee.
" The people are in general faithless and very covetous, and
they never make a present without expecting to receive three times
as rnucb, in return." Valdez's Africa, Vol. II., page 208.
1NHOSP1TAL1TY TO STRANGERS, ETC. 85
did not give him the same number as he had received from
Speke.' This miserable, grasping, lying coward, is nevertheless
a king, and the success of my expedition depends upon him."
Baker's Great Basin of the Nile, page 313.
" When they can no longer ask, they begin to borrow, with the
firm resolution of never repaying and, what is worst of all, when,
;
" In
begging, the South Africans are most ceaseless and impor-
tunate. At Mr. Burchell's first entrance, they observed a certain
degree of ceremony, and only one solitary cry for tobacco was
heard ;
but of delicacy or decorum soon gave way.
this feeling
Mattivi himself made a
private request that the presents intended
for him should not be seen by the people at large, by whom they
would soon be all begged away. They seemed to have more
pride in what they procured by solicitation than in a thing of
greater value if received as a spontaneous gift." Murray's Afri-
can Discoveries, page 222.
"
Tjopopa would spend whole days at our camp in the most ab-
solute idlenessand apathy, teasing us with begging for everything
he saw. Like all Damaras, he had a perfect mania for tobacco,
and considered no degradation too deep provided he could obtain
a few inches of narcotic weed. . . He was supposed to have no
.
" It often came about that our house was like a shop where
there are customers in abundance, except that in our case they
were customers who wished to have everything for nothing. One
wanted a hatchet, another a garment, a third needles, a fourth a
dollar, a fifth salt or pepper, a sixth physic ; and so, in one day,
we sometimes had fifteen or twenty applicants, all begging, and
often after a very cunning fashion." Krapfs Africa, page 175.
"The chief now said something to his boys, and then retired
out of sight. Immediately a dozen or more boys were in chase
of an unfortunate rooster ; every boy or girl who came up was
pressed into service, so that soon nearly all the children of the
town were engaged in the chase. Finally the rooster was cap-
tured, and taken to the chief, who now came forward and, with a
low bow, presented it to me. We were now allowed to proceed.
You may be sure, if you are acquainted with the African charac-
ter, that the chief did not fail to pay me a visit soon after, when I
had to make him a return present of four or five times the value
of his fowl. Nor was this sufficient, but he must come four or
five times, giving me to understand he wanted something."
Scotfs Day Dawn in Africa, page 108.
not only exacting from them beyond reason, but defrauding them
by many subtle and sly inventions." Ogilby's Africa,page 521.
for ray consolation under the loss of it, that he would wear it on
all public occasions, and inform every one who saw it of my great
liberality toward him. The request of an African prince, in his
own dominions, particularly when made to a stranger, comes
little short of a command. It isonly a way of obtaining by gentle
means what he can, if he pleases, obtain by force and, as it was
;
CHAPTER XIII.
"
Grumbling and dissatisfied, they never do business without a
grievance. Revenge is a ruling passion, as the many rancorous
fratricidal wars that have prevailed between kindred clans, even
for a generation, prove. Retaliation and vengeance are, in fact,
their great agents of moral control. Judged by the test of death,
the East African is a hard-hearted man, who seems to ignore all
the charities of father, son, and brother. . . . Their squab-
bling and clamor pass description they are never happy except
;
" The children have all the frowning and unprepossessing look
of their parents; they reject little civilities, and seem to spend
life in disputes, biting and clawing like wild-cats. There appears
to be family affection in this undemonstrative race."
little Bur-
ton's Africa, page 323.
" man
Property among them is insecure ;
a has always a vested
right in his sister's children, and when he dies his brothers and
relations carefully plunder his widow and orphans." Burton's
Africa, page 97.
" The
Bushman, who has lost his wife by elopement, walks out
with his gun and shoots the first man whom he meets. He then
proclaims that he has done this because a man has run away with
his wife. The clansmen of the murdered man are enraged, not
against the husband, who has simply complied with a usage of
society, but because the duty of the avenger is now cast upon
them. As the gay Lothario is out of their reach, they kill a man
belonging to the next village his friends retaliate on their unsus-
;
whole country is on the alert. The gates of all the villages are
WRANGLING) LAWLESSNESS, PENURY, ETC. 91
closed and barricaded, and some luckless clan can gain no oppor-
tunity of washing out their wrong in somebody's else blood. The
chief of that clan thensummons a council, and puts forward his
claim against the man who has run away with the wife. The
husband has no longer anything to do with the matter. The chief
of the culprit's clan offers pecuniary compensation, and general
concord is restored. Readers Savage Africa, page 217.
"
Everything that comesin their way, which they cannot appro-
priate on the spot to their own use, is destroyed, that it may not
be of advantage to others. If they discover an ostrich's nest, and
circumstances do not permit their continuing on the spot till all
they find there is consumed, they eat as much as they can, but
the rest of the eggs are destroyed. Do they meet a large flock of
springboks, they wound as many as possible, although six or
eight are sufficient to last them several days ; the rest are left to
die, and rot on the ground." Lichtensteiri's Africa, Vol. IL, page
50.
having no leader for whom they cared, and no law which they
obeyed, they threw off all manner of restraint, and, from robbing
each other, they turned to plundering the property of their neigh-
bors, and waylaying every unprotected stranger or traveller that
had occasion to pass through their country. The same unruly,
outrageous, and turbulent spirit, and desperate conduct prevail
among the natives of Pundi to the present time, and similar acts
of rapacity and violence are consummated by them every day, so
that their country is dreaded and shunned by every one acquainted
with their character and habits." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol.
I., page 335.
moment sorrow ;
cornes over them and vanishes like the light-
ning's flash they weep, and, in the same breath, their spirits re-
;
" On our return we saw a child, about eight years old, standing
WRANGLING, LAWLESSNESS, PENURY, ETC. 93
" I thanked God that I was not a native African. These poor
people lead dreadful and dreary lives. Not only have they to fear
their enemies among neighboring tribes, as well as the various
accidents to which a savage life is especially liable, such as starva-
wild beasts, etc., but their whole lives are sad-
tion, the attacks of
dened and embittered by the fears of evil spirits, witchcraft, and
other kindred superstitions under which they labor." Du Chail-
Itfs Equatorial Africa, page 102.
they look as though they had been planed off, and their long, thin
legs and arms give them a peculiar gnat-like appearance. At
night they crouch close to the fires, lying in the smoke to escape
the clouds of mosquitoes. At this season the country is a vast
swamp, the only dry spots being the white ant-hills; in such
places the natives herd like wild animals, simply rubbing them-
selves with wood ashes to keep out the cold. ...
So misera-
ble are the natives of this tribe, that they devour both skins and
bones of all dead animals ; the bones are pounded between stones,
and when reduced to powder they are boiled to a kind of porridge ;
nothing is left even for a fly to feed upon, when an animal either
dies a natural death, or is killed." Baker's Great Basin of the
Nik, page 49.
CHAPTER XIV.
THEFT AS A FINE ART AMONQ THE AFRICANS.
" SHOW me a black man, and I will show you a thief." Hutch-
inson's Western Africa, Vol. II. , page 280.
itive ladies I never saw in any country they begged for every-
;
out, they only laughed heart ily, clapped their hands together, and
exclaimed, Why, how sharp he is Only think Why, he caught
'
! !
"
us ! Derihain's Africa, Vol. III., page 24.
'
The thievish propensities of the people of Logon are very re-
markable, and the first intimation which I received of it was an
that the wealthiest and the most exalted amongst them would not
hesitate to steal the shirt off one's back, could he effect it without
forks from our plates. Once, they actually took the meat out of
the pot, as it was boiling on the fire, substituting a stone. They
will place their feet over any small article lying on the ground,
96 THEFT AS A FINE ART AMONG THE AFRICANS.
page 141.
and so generally runs this vicious humor through the whole race
of blacks, that great and rich merchants do sometimes practise
small filching for being come to the trading ships they are not
;
" The
people of the Grain Coast are very envious of all strangers,
and steal from them whatever they can lay their hands on so ;
'
I witnessed to-day a striking instance of the inborn
cunning
and deceit of the native African. people had spread out on
My
mats, in front of ray hut, a quantity of ground-nuts which we had
bought, when I observed from the inside of the hut a little urchin,
about four years old, slyly regaling himself with them, keeping
his eyes on me, and believing himself unnoticed. I suddenly
came out ;
but the little rascal, as quick as thought, seated
him-
selfon a piece of wood, and dexterously concealed the nuts ho
had in his hand under the joints of his legs and in the folds of his
abdominal skin then looked up to me with an air of perfect in-
;
CHAPTER XV.
LYING AS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT AMONG THE AFRICANS.
*'
THE truth is not in them, and to be detected in a lie is not the
smallest disgrace ;
it only causes a laugh." Clappertori's Africa,
page 184.
" Almost
every African is guilty of gross exaggeration in his
statements, and too many of them are confirmed liars." Lander's
Travels in Africa, Vol. I., page 375.
the
Lying is thought an enviable accomplishment among all
98 DUPLICITY AND VENALITY OF THE NEGROES.
"
Lying being more familiar to their constitution than truth-
saying, they are forever concocting dodges with the view, which
they glory in, of successfully cheating people." Speke's Africa,
page 28.
break them they can see any advantage in it in brief, they are
if ;
CHAPTER XVI.
DUPLICITY AND VENALITY OP THE NEGROES IN NEGROLAND.
"!T seems it was a custom in this country (and not yet entirely
repealed) that whatever commodity a man sells in the morning,
he may, he repents his bargain, go and have the things returned
if
to him again, on
his paying back the money any time before the
setting of the sun the same day and this custom is still in force
;
very high up the river, but here below it is at present pretty well
worn out. However, I shall here give an account how a gentle-
man, who had the honor of being at the head of the company's
affairs here,was served at this very town of Nackway. Not
above twelve years ago, he went up in a sloop on a trading voy-
age to Nackway, where he got a hut built, and took his goods
ashore to trade with. It happened that one morning a man j
earned to the ears of the fellow that sold the cow, he resolved to
make a handle of it, in order to extort money from the governor.
Accordingly, about noon the same day, he came to the port of
Nackway, in a seeming good-humor, and a great number of
people with him, with a plausible story, that, as he was going the
next day to marry one of his daughters to a young man for whom
he had a great regard, and had nothing to make him a present
of, he therefore had thought better of it, and was not willing to
sell his cow, as he intended, and so desired he might have it re-
1
brought her to you this morning.
'
It is very true,' quoth the gov-
ernor ' when I bought her, she had a tail but, when I had paid
; ;
' '
for her, I cut the tail off.' How,' says the fellow, durst you
have the assurance to cut off my cow's tail without my leave ? I
value the cow and her tail hundred barrs, and that sum
at three
you shall pay me before you stir from this place.' The governor
was very much out of humor, and endeavored to prove that after
lie had paid for the cow she belonged to him but it was all to no
;
" In
morality, according to the more extended sense of the
word, the East African is markedly deficient. He has no benev-
olence, but little veneration (the negro race is ever irreverent),
and, though his cranium rises high in the region of firmness, his
futility prevents his being firm. The outlines of law are faintly
traced upon his heart. The authoritative standard of morality,
fixed by a revelation, is in him represented by a vague and vary-
" The
queen has slandered and defamed the character of her
brother to us most shamefully.In more civilized or rather more
polished countries, among the reasonable part of mankind, a
mutual interchange of benevolent intentions produces a reciproc-
ity of kind feeling and we would hope that the present of yams
;
from her brother would excite the queen's more generous and
affectionate sentiments for him. Yet this despicable vice of
slander is universal in Africa the people all speak ill of each
;
CHAPTER XVII.
"
Every animal is entrapped and eaten. Gins or snares are
seen on both sides of the path, every ten or fifteen yards, for miles
together. The time and labor required to dig up moles and mice
from their burrows would, if applied to cultivation, afford food
for any amount of fowls or swine but the latter are seldom met
;
" The
Bagos are great eaters, and their diet principally consists
of dry fish, swimming in palm oil, which renders it so disgusting
that aEuropean could not touch it. When they kill a sheep, they
mix the skin and entrails, unwashed, with the stews which they
make they also eat snakes, lizards, and monkeys."
; CailliJs
" The Kaffirs eat like ogres, but at a pinch they can easily go
three days without food. I once saw a clever mischievous Kaffir
lad, named April, hide inside an elephant we had shot that day.
He caught two vultures by the legs as they were tearing away at
the carcass, pulled the first inside, and shoved him forward into
the vacant space where the Masaras had taken out the elephant's
heart, and then proceeded to capture his mate. 1 '
Baldwins
Africa, page 306.
9*
102 DISLIKE OF THEIR OWN COLOR BY THE NEGROES.
" Hosts of savages whom we were
attended quickly cleared
by
away the carcasses of the game we
slew, and then quarrelled for
the entrails. I hope the reader has understood that these barba-
rians generally devour the meat raw, although when at leisure they
do not object to its being cooked. They usually seize a piece of
flesh by the teeth, cutting a large mouthful of it with a knife close
to the lips, before masticating it, which they do with a loud sput-
ter and noise. The meal being finished they never fail to wipe
their hands on their bodies, and then being generally gorged they
CHAPTER XVIII.
" The
people under Bango are divided into a number of classes.
There are his councillors, as the highest, who are generally head
men of several villages, and the carriers, the lowest freemen.
One class above the last obtains the privilege of wearing shoes
from the chief by paying for it another, the soldiers or militia,
;
pay for the privilege of serving, the advantage being that they
are not afterward liable to be made carriers. They are also
divided into gentlemen and little gentlemen, and, though quite
black, speak of themselves as white men, and of others who may
not wear shoes, as ' blacks.' The men of all these classes trust
to their wives for food, and spend most of their time in drinking
the palm-toddy." Livingstone's Africa,page 445.
had only one son, and he was darker than herself; that she
loved white men, and would go to Boussa with me." Clappertori's
Africa, Vol. IV., page 222.
104 DISLIKE OF THEIR OWN COLOR BY THE NEGROES.
" The Foulahs the negro natives as then*
evidently consider all
when talking
inferiors; and, of different nations, always rank
themselves among the white people." Mungo Park's Travels in
Africa, page 23.
"
Observing the improved state of our manufactures, and our
manifest superiority in the arts of civilized life, Hai-fa, the intelli-
gent negro merchant, would sometimes appear pensive, and ex-
claim, with an involuntary sigh, 'Fato fing into, feng,"
1
black
men are good for nothing." Mungo Park's 1st Journal, page 259.
" The
negro Mohammedans worship God under the name of
Allah they acknowledge Mohammed as a prophet, but do not
;
" '
know the white men,
I too, said the prince, they are good
men ;
have reason to speak well of them, for I also am a
in fact I
white man, and therefore I am of opinion that they are of the same
blood as ourselves.' It is in this manner that Falatahs endeavor
to claim relationship with Europeans, though these people are
either of a swarthy complexion or black as soot and this passion ;
fellow, thou pitiful son of a black ant dost thou presume to say
'
!
say, for I am a white man The speaker was a negro, and his
'
!
CHAPTER XIX.
COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND CONCUBINAGE IN NEGROLAND.
upon any one of their own number. The chief business of his
domestic life is to adjust these petty jealousies, and, to a still
greater extent, the quarrels and strifes which are hourly springing
up among the children of the different branches of the same house-
hold." Wilson's Africa, page 144.
" The
present King of Dahomey has appropriated no less than
three thousand women to his own use. The number belonging to
his head wai'riors depends upon their bravery, but no one is al-
lowed to have a number large enough to suggest most remotely
any idea of rivalry Avith the king. It is well known that many of
the wives of the king must be sacrificed at the death of their lord,
and this, no doubt, is a powerful motive to induce them to take
the best care of him, and prolong his life as much as possible, but
never deters any from freely entering into this honored relation-
ship." Wilson's Africa, page 202.
" me
if I would take his daughter
Yano, Chief of Eiama, asked
for a wife. I said Yes.' . . The old woman went out, and
.
I followed with the king's head man. I went to the house of the
COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND CONCUBINAGE. 109
spread I sat down and the lady coming in and kneeling down,
; ;
"
Assulah, the Chief of Chaki, inquired how many wives an
Englishman had. Being told only one, he seemed much aston-
ished, and laughed greatly, as did all his people. 'What does he
do,' said he, 'when one of his wives has a child? Assulah has
two thousand.' " Clappertori's Africa, Vol.. IV., page 204.
" Of
wives, the Chief of Katunga said, he himself had plenty,
he did not exactly know how many, but he was sure that, hand to
hand, they would reach from Katunga to Jannah." Clappertori's
Africa, Vol. IV., page 212.
long a time has given her considerable uneasiness, so that life it-
self has become a burden to her. All that we could do for her
was to soothe her mind, by telling her that her distemper was
very common, and not at all dangerous and promising that on
;
our return this way, should nothing transpire in her favor in the
mean time, we would endeavor to remove the cause of her com-
plaint. This comforted the aged matron exceedingly, and, in the
fulness of her heart, she burst into tears of joy, dropped on her
knees to express her acknowledgment, and pressed us to accept
of a couple of goora-nuts." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. /.,
page 193.
er will get any.' She feels the insult so keenly that it is not un-
common for her to rush away and commit suicide." Living-
stone's Africa, page 446.
ting rid of her. The common price of a wife here and at Cape
Coast is sixteen dollars. A wife is very seldom purchased when
more than twenty years old but generally when five or six years
;
" As the
Bosjesman lives without a home, and without property,
he must be without the great medium of moral refinement, the
social union. A horde commonly consists of the different mem-
bers of one family only, and no one has any power or distinction
above the rest. Every difference is decided by the right of the
strongest; even the family tie is not sanctioned by any law or
regulation. The wife is not indissolubly united to her husband ;
but, when he gives her permission, she may go whither she will,
and associate with any other man; nay, the stronger man will
sometimes take away the wife of the weaker, and compel her,
whether she will or not, to follow him." Liclitenstein's Africa,
Vol. II. , page 48.
112 COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND CONCUBINAGE.
every reader to draw from this single circumstance his own infer-
ence with regard to the nature of love, and every kind of moral
feeling among them." Licktensteiri's Africa, Vol. II. , page 48.
ject of his passion is sent to join the other ladies of the seraglio.
The introduction of a new wife into the harem is thus always the
signal for a number of deaths and, indeed, to so great an excess
;
'
A man pays goods or slaves for his wife, and regards her,
COURTSHIP, MARRIAGE, AND CONCUBINAGE. 113
nothing?
'
The wives are more harshly treated than the slaves;
a stroke of the whip often leaves a lifelong mark and I saw ;
very few women in my travels who had not some such marks on
their persons." Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa, page 382.
" I had now grownto such sudden importance among the na-
tives, that theneighboring chiefs and kings sent me daily mes-
sages of friendship, with trifling gifts that I readily accepted.
One of these lords, more generous and insinuating than the rest,
hinted several times his anxiety for a closer connection in affec-
tion as well as trade, and, at length, insisted upon becoming my
father-in-law. I had always heard that it was something to receive
the hand of a princess, even after long and tedious wooing but ;
"
During the whole time that the old lady was at work she was
uttering disjointed remarks to me, and at length proposed, in the
most shameless and barefaced manner, that I should marry her
daughter. I requested to know which of the damsels then pres-
ent was the proposed bride, and was shown a young lady about
twelve years old, who had very much the appearance of a picked
Cochin-China fowl. I concealed my laughter, and told the old
lady that when this lassie became taller, and very fat, I might
then think more seriously of her proposition but as at present I ;
had not six cows (the required price) handy, I could not enter-
tain the subject. The old lady told me she would get the skin and
bone adorned with fat by the time I came on another visit, and,
for all I know, this black charmer may be now waiting in disap-
11
pointed plumpness. Drayson's Africa, page 227.
for each of his wives; but even this precaution cannot prevent the
quarrels and strife which are continually occurring among the
different wives and children. The wives are never treated as
equals. They are not allowed to sit down to a meal with their
husbands but after they have prepared their food, they are re-
;
quired in their presence to taste it, to show that it has not been
1 "
poisoned. This process
'
is called taking off the witch. Scoffs
Day Dawn in Africa, page 50.
"
There is no such thing as love in those countries, the feeling is
not understood, nor does it exist in the shape in which we under-
stand it. Everything is practical, without a particle of romance.
Women are so far appreciated as they are valuable animals. They
grind the corn, fetch the water, gather firewood, cement the floors,
cook the food, and propagate the race ; but they are mere ser-
vants, and as such are valuable. The price of a good-looking,
strong, young wife, who could carry a heavy jar of water, would
be ten cows thus a
; man, rich in cattle, would be rich in domestic
bliss, as command a multiplicity of wives. The simple
he could
rule of proportion will suggest that if one daughter is worth ten
cows, ten daughters must be worth a hundred, therefore a large
family is the source of wealth the girls produce the cows, and
;
the boys milk them. All being perfectly naked (I mean the girls
and the boys) , there is no expense, and the children act as herdsmen
to the flocks as in the patriarchal times." Baker's Great Basin of
the Nile, page 148.
chest, and with this she went away contented." Baker's Great
Basin of the Nile, page 216.
"
Negro women can gratify the desire of a libertine, but they
can never inspire a passion of the soul, nor feed that hunger of
love which must sometimes gnaw the heart of a refined and cul-
tivated man. The negress has beauty, beauty in spite of her
black skin, which might create a furore in our demi-monde, and
for which fools might fling their fortunes to the dogs. And she is
gentle, and faithful, and loving in her own poor way. But where
is the coy glance, the tender sigh, the timid blush ? Where is the
intellect, which is the light within the crystal lamp, the genius
within the clay? No, no, the negress is not a woman; she is a
parody of woman she is a pretty toy, an affectionate brute,
;
"
It is curious that the Equatorial savages of Africa should have
a remarkable antipathy to widows. Women never marry twice ;
they are compelled to go on the town on the death of their hus-
band, and to pay all their earaings to their brothers. . ^ .
" In
many parts of Africa, no marriage can be ratified till a jury
of matrons have pronounced a verdict of purity on the bride and
of capability on the husband. In other parts, especially in the
malarious localities, where women are so frequently sterile, no
one cares te marry a girl till she has produced a child. This has
given rise to a supposition that they prefer a wife who has earned
a little experience in dissipation. The real reason is, that if they
marry they must pay a high price for their wife. This price they
hope to regain by the sale of the children which she will bear."
Readers Savage Africa, page 425.
CHAPTER XX.
MUMBO JUMBO IN NEGEOLAND.
but few of the natives can manage. It never comes abrbad but
in the night time, which makes it have the better effect. When-
ever the men have any dispute with the women, this Mumbo
Jumbo is sent for to determine it which is, I may say, always in
;
favor of the men. Whoever is in the coat, can order the others
to do what he pleases, either fight, kill, or make prisoner but it ;
has the coat on, he will send for them all to come and sit down,
118 FUNERAL AND BURIAL RITES.
to come, he will send the people for them, and then whip them.
. . When a man has been a day or two from home, the wife
.
salutes him on her knees at his return, and, in the same posture,
she always brings him water to drink. This, I believe, is the
effect of, what I before mentioned, Mumbo Jumbo." Moore's
Inland Parts of Africa, page 116-122.
/
CHAPTER XXI.
FUNERAL AND BURIAL RITES IN NEGROLAND.
" Ihad noticed, during the march from Latome, that the
vicinity of every town was announced by heaps of human re-
mains. Bones and skulls formed a Golgotha within a quarter of
a mile of every village. Some of these were in earthenware pots,
generally broken others lay strewn here and there, while a heap
;
in the centre showed that some form had originally been observed
in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary
custom most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man
be killed in battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and
is devoured by the vultures and hyenas ; but should he die a nat-
slaves, one on each side and the third in front, are buried alive to
preserve their lord from the horrors of solitude. A
copious liba-
tion of pombe upon the heaped-up earth concludes the ceremony."
Burtorfs Africa, page, 296.
" The
great headmen of Wadoc are buried almost naked, but
retaining their bead-ornaments, sitting in a shallow pit, so that
the fore-finger can project above the ground. With each man are
interred alive a male and a female sjave, the former holding a bill-
hook, wherewith to cut fuel for his lord in the cold death- world,
and the latter, who is seated upon a little stool, supports his head
in her lap." Burton's Africa, page 98.
" The Kaffirs differ very materially from all the neighboring
nations in their manner of disposing of the dead. Funeral rites
are bestowed only on the bodies of their chiefs, and of their
children. The first are generally interred very deep in the dung
of their own cattle accumulated in the kraals or places where
they are pent up at nights ;
and the bodies of infants are most
commonly deposited in the ant-hills that have been excavated by
the ant-eaters. The common people are exposed to be devoured
FUNERAL AND BURIAL RITES. 121
consequence of which is, that the country swarms with this vora-
cious and destructive animal." farrow's Africa, Vol. I., page
174.
" On our
way home, I saw the corpse of a young slave, about
twelve years of age, slung to a pole, and carried by two men.
This led to the disclosure of a fact, of which I had hitherto been
ignorant ; namely, that all slaves, except a few favored ones, are
considered not worth the trouble of a decent burial, and are con-
sequently taken, and thrown into the water which runs round the
town, where they are eaten by the thousands of fishes which the
river contains." Freeman's Africa, page 135.
" own
Every one is buried under the floor of his house, with-
out monument or memorial; and among the commonalty the
house continues occupied as usual but among the great there is
;
bodies of slaves are dragged out of town, and left a prey to vultures
and wild beasts. In Kano they do not even take the trouble to
convey them beyond the walls, but throw the corpse into the
morass or nearest pool of water." Clappertori's Africa, Vol. IV.,
page 55.
CHAPTER XXII.
INDOLENCE AND IMPROVIDENCE OF THE NEGBOES.
the provision of the latter being so cheap (one penny per day is
sufficient for their support), they have always plenty to eat. I am
quently, the towns on the coast abound with thieves and vaga-
bonds, who will not work." Duncan's Africa, Vol. L, page 40.
" Even the free negroes labor merely to acquire the means of
not string the nerves or cord the muscles of Africa. Four men's
laborwas not equivalent to one day's work in Europe or America.
The was both natural and self-evident:
negro's philosophy why
should he work for pay when he could live without it ? " Canofs
Twenty Tears of an African Slaver, page 417.
negro girl to cook for them, raised one hundred and twelve and a
half ban-els of corn, ten stacks of oats, and eight thousand pounds
tobacco. The negroes returned the mules in a poor, emaciated
condition. The white men turned theirs over fat and sleek. The
negroes worked four mules, the whites two. The gentleman
referred to will, this year, work white men exclusively. To show
TIMIDITY AND COWARDICE OF THE NEGROES. 125
the improvidence of the negroes, he said the cart and mules were
at their service to haul wood yet they preferred to burn rails."
;
" The
great national vice of the Africans is their indolence,
They have no athletic sports. They wonder at the white man who
walks to a"nd fro from the mere love of walking." Readers
Savage Africa, page 448.
page 303.
CHAPTER XXIII.
" IN their
warfare, cunning has a most important part. They
laugh at the courage of the white man, who faces his enemy, and
delight most in ambushes and sudden surprises. If one has a
quarrel with another, he lies in wait for him, shoots him as he is
11*
126 TIMIDITY AND COWARDICE OF THE KEGEOES.
the palaver, and the killing and robbing goes on for months and
even years, each party acting as occasion offers." Du Chaillu's
noe much smaller and weaker than the attackers, these are the
warlike feats I have heard most praised, and seen oftenest done
in this part of Africa." Du Chaittu's Equatorial Africa, page 131.
" In war,
they show no bravery, although on the hunt they are
certainly brave enough. They despise boldness and admire cun-
ning prefer to gain by treachery, if possible have no mercy or
; ;
consideration for the enemy's women and children and are cruel ;
page 379.
"
During the war, which has continued these four months, the
loss on the part of the Yaoorie has been about a half-dozen men
killed, and the slaughter on the part of the rebels, it is said, has
been no less. This sanguinary contest is a specimen of their war-
TIMIDITY AND COWARDICE OF THE NEGROES. 127
for which there was said to have been such mighty preparations
in Nouffie, and which caused so much consternation in this city
an evening or two ago, has terminated in the capture of a herd of
tie King of Wowow's bullocks near the walls of his town."-
Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. I., pages 273, 275.
the Moors drove the cattle away, though they passed within pis-
tol-shot of them, the inhabitants scarcely made a show of resist-
ance. I saw only four muskets fired, which, being loaded with
gunpowder of the negroes' own manufacture, did no execution."
Mungo Park's 1st Journal, page 85.
" In an
attempt to storm or subdue Cooniah, the capital of the
rebellious province of Ghoober, the number of fighting men
brought before the town could not, I think, have been less than
fifty or sixty thousand, horse and foot, of which the foot amounted
to more than nine-tenths. For the depth of more than two hun-
dred yards, all round the walls, was a dense circle of men and
horses. The horse kept out of the reach of bow-shot, while the
foot went up, as they felt courage or inclination, and kept up a
struggling lire with about thirty muskets and the shooting of ar-
128 TIMIDITY AND COWARDICE OF THE NEGROES.
you hasten to the wall ? To which some voices would call out
'
'
Oh you have a good large shield to cover you
! The cry o' !
'
Shields to the wall was constantly heard from the several chiefc
!
'
to their troops; but they disregarded the call, and neither chiefi
nor vassals moved from the spot. ...
At the conclusion oi
this memorable which nothing was concluded, the whole
battle, in
army set off" in the greatest confusion, men and quadrupeds tum-
bling over each other, and upsetting everything that fell in their
way." Clappertoii's Africa, Vol. IV., page 242.
" It
confidently stated by the missionaries that the King of
is
one half of the line squatted and dropped down, frightened at the
noise of the guns in their own hands. I also conversed with sev-
eral of them. They told me they never expected it of the Yan-
kees to make them fight ;
that they could not fight ' Me drap
;
They ran with all the swiftness that their fears could excite.
. . . Green, the negro, is a large man, with a very bad coun-
tenance and expression, and a most arrant coward. He cringes
and begs to every person who approaches him."
CHAPTER XXIV.
AFRICAN ANECDOTES.
" So whom
long as the negro can laugh, he jjares little against
the joke goes." Du Chaillu's Equatorial^Africa, page 330.
" The
enraged wife rushed out to seek her supposed rival, and
a battle ensued. Women's fights in this country always begin by
their throwing off their dengui, that is, stripping themselves en-
laughing did not end there, for the pages, for once giving way
to nature, kept bursting, my men chuckled in sudden gusts,
while even the women, holding their mouths for fear of detection,
responded, and we all laughed together. Then a sedate old
dame rose from the squatting mass, ordered the virgins to right-
about, and marched them off, showing their still more naked
reverses." Speke^s Africa, page 357.
A negro dwarf, who measured three feet all but an inch, the
132 AFRICAN ANECDOTES.
keeper of Princess Miram's keys, sat before her with the insignia
of oflice on his shoulder, and richly dressed in Soudan tobes.
This little person afforded us a subject of conversation and much
laughter. Miram inquired whether we had such little fellows in
my country and when I answered in the affirmative, she said,
;
Ah, gieb what are they good for ? Do they ever have children ?
4 '
!
'
tall and proper men.' Oh, wonderful
' 4
she replied
! 1 thought ;
so they must be better than this dog of mine for I have given
; ;
page 3.
44
Their supreme happiness consists in having an abundance of
meat. Asking a man, who was more grave and thoughtful than
his companions, what was the finest sight he could desire, he
44
They are very superstitious in some things, one of which is,
that if they know anybody boils the sweet milk which they buy
of them, they will not, for any consideration, sell that person any
more, because they say that boiling the milk makes the cows
dry." Moore's Inland Parts of Africa, page 35.
a bachelor like me, but its infernal voice was enough to cause the
miscarriage of an entire harem, if not of every honest women
throughout his jurisdiction. The superstition spread like wildfire.
The women were up in arms against the beast and I had no rest ;
CHAPTER XXV.
UTTER FAILURE AND INUTILITY OF ALL MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES
IN NEGROLAND.
had worked with much zeal for many years, but that the natives
were utterly impracticable. They were far below the brutes, as
the latter show signs of affection to those who are kind to them ;
while the natives, oilthe contrary, are utterly obtuse to all feel-
ings of gratitude. He described the people as lying and deceit-
ful to a superlative degree ;
themore they receive the more they
desire, but in return they will do nothing. Twenty or thirty of
these disgusting, ash-smeared, stark-naked brutes, armed with
clubs of hard wood brought to a point, were lying idly about the
station. . . . Near by are the graves of several members of
the mission, who have left their bones in this horrid land, while
not one convert has been made from the mission of St. Croix."
Bakers Great Basin of the NUe page 53. t
" The state of the East- African heathen, their indifference toward
all that is spiritual, or to any progress in mere human affairs (they
are, as Rebrnann rightly says, ' profitable in nothing, either to
1
God or to the world ) may easily beget in the heart of a mission-
,
"
nought, and in vain.
1
Krapf'a Africa, page 507.
"From this time forward the king began to develop his treach-
erous character, promising, in the hope of presents, to promote my
journey to Uniamesi, while all the while he had resolved to prevent
it. Extortion, too, followed upon extortion, his magician.Wessiri,
FAILURE OF MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES. 135
" The most important and interesting portion of the last num-
ber of the 'Journal of the Anthropological Society of London' is the
discussion before the Anthropological Society on the efforts of
missionaries
among savages, a discussion inaugurated by Mr.
Winwood Reade, author of Savage Africa,' who stated, as the
'
" Mr.
Phillips, of Abeokuta, with the rest of the missionaries in
Central Africa, have been expelled from the country, suffering
the loss of their entire property. Mr. Phillips is at Lagos in a
destitute condition." New York Tribune, February 11, 1868.
The natives replied that they were quite content to go where their
fathers had gone before them. But the firmest opponents of these
innovations were the women ; and, as every one knows, a priest-
hood only powerful when supported on female pillars. The
is
'
They dread a superhuman power, and they fear and worship
FAILURE OF MISSIONARY ENTERPRISES. 137
that there has been a choice of the evil in preference to the good.
The fact in their case seems to be, that good in will, or good in
action, are ideas foreign to their minds. Selfishness cannot be
more intense, nor more exclusive of all kindness and generosity or
charitable aifection, than it is generally found among these bar-
barians. The inconceivableness of such motives to action has
often been found a strong obstacle to the influence of the Christian
\
" Soon an
aged woman, to whom the missionary had often
spoken of the glorious gospel, joined the little praying-circle.
The change in this old woman, Yuwa, was very sticking. She
had seemed to be one of the most unpromising characters in the
town of Nyaro, and the first time the missionary, who had charge
of the town, asked her why she did not regularly attend the
'"
chapel, she replied, Me go to church, and you no pay me
'
!
"A
missionary at Maopongo having met one of the queens,
and finding her mind inaccessible to all his instructions, deter-
mined to use sharper remedies, and, seizing a whip, began to ap-
ply it to her majesty's person. The effect he describes as most
auspicious every successive blow opened her eyes more and more
;
the gospel, because they know nothing about either it or its bene-
fits." Livingstones Africa, page 544.
" The town swarmed with thieves and drunkards, whose only
object in life was sensual gratification. Nowhere else had I met
with so many impudent and shameless beggars. When a mis-
sionary attempted to preach to a crowd in the streets or market,
it was very common for some of them to reply by laying their
" In the
negroes own country the efforts of the missionaries for
1
CHAPTER XXVI.
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, MANNERS, AND CUS-
TOMS OF THE NEGROES IN NEGROLAND.
"
They fear all manner of phantoms, and have half-developed
ideas and traditions of something or other, they know not what.
The pleasures of animal life are ever present to their minds as the
supreme good." Livingstone's Africa, page 477.
*'
Sambanza gave us a detailed account of the political affairs
of the country, and of Kolimbota's evil doings, and next morning
'
joined (in this case Pitsane and Sambanza were the parties en-
gaged) ; small incisions are made on the clasped hands, on the
pits of the stomach of each, and on the right cheeks and foreheads.
A small quantity of blood is taken off from these points in both
parties by means of a stalk of grass. The blood from one person
is put into a pot of beer, and that of the second into another ;
each then drinks the other's blood, and they are supposed to be-
come perpetual friends or relations." Livingstone's Africa, page
525.
" The
chieftainship is elective from certain families. Among
the Bangalas of the Cassange valley the chief is chosen from three
families in rotation. A
chiefs brother inherits in preference to his
son. The sonsof a sister belong to her brother; and he often
sells his nephews to pay his debts. By this and other unnatural
customs, more than by war, is the slave-market supplied. The
prejudices in favor of these practices are very deeply rooted in
the native mind. Even at Loanda they retire out of the city in
140 MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC.
" All the Batoka tribes follow the curious custom of knocking
out the upper front teeth at the age of puberty. This is done by
both sexes and though the under teeth, being relieved from the
;
attrition of the upper, grow long and somewhat bent out, and
thereby cause the under lip to protrude in a most unsightly way,
no young woman thinks herself accomplished until she has got
rid of the upper incisors. This custom gives all the Batoka an
uncouth, old- man-like appearance. Their laugh is hideous; yet
they are so attached to it than even Sebituane was unable to eradi-
cate the practice. He issued orders that none of the children
living under him should be subjected to the custom by their
parents, and disobedience to his mandates was usually punished
with severity but, notwithstanding this, the children would ap-
;
pear in the streets without their incisors, and no one would con-
fess to the deed. When questioned respecting the origin of this
practice, the Batoka reply that their object is to be like oxen, and
those who retain their teeth they consider to resemble zebras.
Whether this is the true reason or not, it is difficult to say ;
but it
explanation of the custom they say that the wife of a chief hav-
:
" I have
already noticed some peculiar customs of the Marghi ;
but I must say a few words about their curious ordeal on the holy
granite rock of Kobshi. When two are litigating about a matter,
each of them takes a cock which he thinks the best for fighting,
and they go together to Kobshi. Having arrived at the holy rock,
they set their birds a-fighting, and he whose cock prevails in the
combat is also the winner in the point of litigation. But more than
that, the master of the defeated cock is punished by the divinity
whose anger he has thus provoked, and on returning to his village
he finds his hut in flames." BzrtK's Africa, Vol. II. page ,
216.
page 463
pursued with eagerness, and almost with fury. The most favor-
ite is wrestling, which the chiefs do not practise in person, but
parts to strike together with the most violent collision, when she
who maintains her equilibrium, while the other lies stretched, is
proclaimed victor with loud cheers." Murray's African Discover-
ies, page 145.
"After the heat of the day was over, Yano, Chief of Kiama,
came, attended by all his train. The most extraordinary persons
in it were himself and the bearers of his spears, which, as before,
were six naked young girls, from fifteen to seventeen years of age.
The only thing they wore was a fillet of white cloth round the
forehead, about six inches of the ends flying behind, and a string
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC. 143
of beads round their waists in their right hands they carried three
;
" The
ceremony of prostration before the king is required from
all. The chiefs who come to pay their court, cover themselves
with dust, and then fall flat on their bellies, having first practised
the ceremony, in order to be perfect." Clappertori's Africa, Vol.
IV., page 208.
tressing to witness the torture the poor little children undergo who
144 MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC.
are thus marked, enduring not only the heat, but the attacks o
millions offlies. They have also one cut on the forehead in the
on each arm, six on each leg and thigh, four on each
centre, six
breast,and nine on each side, just above the hips. They are,
however, the most humble of females, never approaching their
husbands except on their knees." Denham and Clappertoii'a
Africa, Vol. III., page 175.
" His
Highness vouchsafed this day to sleep in my tent, and yes-
terday he did the Germans the honor of slaughtering lice in theirs.
It isa grand piece of etiquette in this country, that every man has
the privilege of murdering his .own lice. If you pick a louse off a
man's slave, you must deliver it up instantly to him to be mur-
dered, as his undoubted right and privilege." Richardson's Af-
rica, Vol. II., page 89.
" Before
they sit down to eat meat in company, the Kaffirs are
very careful to immerse their hands in fresh cow-dnng, wiping
them on the grass, which is considered the perfection of cleanli-
ness. Except an occasional plunge in a river, they never wash
ithemselves, and consequently their bodies are covered with ver-
inin." Steedmari's Africa, Vol. I., page 265.
squeeze out the poison from under his teeth, and drink it. They
say it only makes them a little giddy and they imagine it pre-
;
serves them afterwards from receiving any injury from the sting
of that reptile." Campbett^s Africa, page 401.
" As for the people of Namacqua, when their sons are declared
to be men, they erect a shade, kill an animal, and tie its fat on his
head and round his neck, which, according to custom, he must
wear till it gradually rots and falls off. They likewise cut several
strokes on his breast with a sharp instrument. The entrails of the
animal which was killed at the commencement of the ceremony,
being dried and pounded into a powder, are now mixed wtih
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC. 145
" His
prime minister and four others next in rank, who were
conducting me to his majesty's presence, desired me to halt till
they paid their compliment to his majesty, forming line in front
of me. They completely prostrated themselves at full length,
rubbing both sides of their faces on the ground and kissing it.
They then raised themselves on their knees, where they remained
till they had completely covered themselves with dust, and
rubbed their arms over with dirt as high as the shoulders."
Duncan's Africa, Vol. I., page 220.
13
146 MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC.
" The Obbo natives are similar to the Bari in some of their
habits. I have had great difficulty in breaking my cow-keeper of
his disgusting custom of washing the milk-bowl with cow's urine,
and even mixing some with the milk he declares that, unless he
;
washes his hands with such water before milking, the cow will
lose her milk." Baker's Great Basin of the Nile, page 258.
" The entire crowd were most grotesquely gotten up, being
dressed in either leopard or white monkey skins, with cows' tails
strapped on behind, and antelopes' horns fitted upon their heads,
while their chins were ornamented with false beards, made of the
bushy ends of cows' tails sewed together. Altogether, I never
saw a more unearthly set of creatures ; they were perfect illustra-
tions of my childish ideas of devils, horns, tails, and all, ex-
cepting the hoofs ; they were our escort ! furnished by King
Kamrasi toaccompany us to the lake." Baker's Great Basin of
the Nile, page 321.
" The
women continue to perform the severest labors until the
very last moment of their time. They give birth to children with-
out uttering a complaint, and one would almost believe that they
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC. 147
are delivered without pain, for on the following day they resume
their usual occupations." Caillie's Africa, Vol. 2., page 351.
me that was
the fashion of the country. I was equally at a loss
it
to conceive how this bit of wood, which was merely stuck through
the lip, could keep its place. The women allowed me to see that
this curious ornament was brought through to the inner part of
the lip, and they laughed heartily at my astonishment. I asked
one of them to remove the piece of wood from her lip but she ;
told me that if she did so the saliva would run through the hole.
In short, I was quite amazed that coquetry could induce them to
disfigure themselves in this manner yet it is the general custom
;
of this country. I saw young girls eight or ten years of age, who
had in their lower lip little pieces of wood of the circumference
of a pen-holder pointed at one end and stuck into the flesh. They
renew it frequently, and eveiy time use a larger bit of wood,
which gradually widens the hole, until it becomes large enough to
admit a piece of wood of the size of a half-crown piece. I ob-
served that this singular and inconvenient ornament contributed
to their uncleanliness." Caillie's Africa, Vol. L, page 374.
" The
queen, who accompanied her lord, and who was de-
cidedly the ugliest woman I ever saw, and very old, was called
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC. 149
" The men take care to put all the hardest work on their wives,
who raise the crops, gather firewood, bear all kinds of burdens;
and, where the bar-wood trade is carried on, as it is now by
many Shekiani villages, the men only cut down the trees and
split them into billets, which the women are then forced to bear
on their backs through the forests and jungle down to the river-
banks, as they have but rude paths, and beasts of burden are un-
known in all this part of Africa. This is the most severe toil
imaginable, as the loads have to be carried often six or seven
miles or more." Du Chaillu's Equatorial Africa, page 197.
with one child in the belly, and another at the back, where they
commonly carry them." Ogilby's Africa, page 466.
" The
king of Congo eats and drinks in secrecy. If a dog en-
ters thehouse while he is at meals, it is killed and an instance is
;
" When a mother dies, whose infant is not able to shift for it-
self, it is, without any ceremony, buried alive with the corpse of
its mother." Moffafs Africa, page 48.
"
They delight to besmear their bodies with the fat of animals,
mingled with ochre, and sometimes with grinie. They are utter
strangers to cleanliness, as they never wash their bodies, but
suffer the dirt to accumulate, so that it will hang a considerable
length from their elbows. Their huts are formed by digging a
hole in the earth about three feet deep, and then making a roof
of reeds, which is however insufficient to keep off the rains. Here
they lie close together like pigs in a sty. They are extremely
lazy, so that nothing will rouse them to action but excessive
hunger. They will continue several days together without food
rather than be at the pains of procuring it. When compelled to
sally forth for prey, they are dexterous at destroying the various
beasts which abound in the country, and they can run almost as
well as a horse. They are total strangers to domestic happiness.
MISCELLANEOUS PECULIARITIES, HABITS, ETC. 151
parts of the nose. Weights are attached to make the hole large
enough to pass the finger through. Pieces of fat meat are fre-
quently worn in these holes, but whether for ornament or fra-
grance is not known. I inquired of one of them once why she did
it, and received the laconic answer, 'My husband likes it.'"
Wilson's Africa, page 288.
" The
person of the King of Loango is sacred, and he is, in
consequence, subjected to some very singular rules, especially in
connection with his eating and drinking. There is one of his
houses in which alone he can eat, and another where alone he can
drink. When the covered dishes which contain his food are car-
ried into the eating-house, a crier proclaims it, and everybody gets
out of the way as quick as possible. The doors are then carefully
closed and bolted, and any person that should see the king in the
act of eating would be put to death. Proyait mentions the fact
that a favorite dog was immediately put to death for looking up
into his master's face while eating. Another is mentioned of a
child that was accidentally left in the banqueting-room of the king
by his father, and who awoke and accidentally saw the king eat-
ing. It was spared five or six days, at the earnest request of its
father, but was then put to death, and its blood sprinkled upon the
king's fetich. Others might be present when the king drank, but
they were bound to conceal their faces. In like manner no one is
allowed to drink in the king's presence without turning their
backs to him." Wilson's Africa, page 309.
any man that has the misfortune or the temerity to cast his eyes
upon him in the act is put to death.
If the king drinks in public,
which is done on some extraordinary occasions, his person is con-
cealed by having a curtain held up before him, during which
time the people prostrate themselves, and afterward shout and
cheer at the very top of their voices." Wilson's Africa, page 202.
CHAPTER XXVII.
HUTS, HOVELS, AND HOLES (BUT NO HOUSES) IN NEGROLAND.
"It is a curious fact that the circular form of hut is the only
" Their
sheep, goats, and poultry eat and sleep in the same hut
with them, and a most intolerable stench is exhaled from all their
dwellings. They do not appear to have the least affection for
their offspring : a parent will sell his child for the merest trifle in
the world, with no more remorse or repugnance than he would a
chicken." Lander's Africa, page 348.
odor emitted from the dirty streets is offensive and almost insup-
portable." Lander's Travels in Africa, Vol. II., page 45.
" Houses are jotted down without any regard to the evenness
or regularity of the ground on which they are erected. The hig-
gledy-piggledy order of architecture prevails throughout and the ;
some of the many ruts to be met with as one goes along. Heaps
of dirt and all kinds of refuse are thrown indiscriminately through
the town, as if to allow pasture-ground for the many turkey-buz-
'
by Swainson, the scavengers of nature,' that con-
zards, styled
gregate upon them, and have a perpetual carnival in browsing
upon the festering offal." Hutchinson's Western Africa, page 116.
"
Except the state chairs or thrones of the great monarchs,
ascended only on very solemn occasions, there is not throughout
native Africa a seat to sit upon. The people squat on the ground
in circles, and if the chief can place beneath him the skin of a lion
or leopard, he is at the height of his pomp. For a table there is
at best a wooden board, whereon is neither plate, knife, fork, nor
"
Throughout the whole country the huts are small, ill-con-
structed, and extremely filthy the door is so low that to enter
;
" The
village was a new one, and consisted mostly of a single
street about eight hundred yards long, on which were built the
houses. The
latter were small, being only eight or ten feet long,
They were made of bark, and the roofs were of a kind of matting
made of the leaves of a palm-tree. The doors run up to the eaves,
about four feet high, and there were no windows. In these houses
they cook, eat, sleep, and keep their store of provisions, chief of
which is the smoked game and smoked human flesh, hung up to
the rafters." Du Chaillifs Equatorial Africa, page 105.
" The
palaver-house is an open shed, which answers the pur-
pose of a public-house, club-room, or town-hall, to these people ;
HUTS, HOVELS) AND HOLES IN NEGROLAND. 157
they meet there daily, to smoke and gossip, hold public trials or
palavers, and receive strangers." Du Chaillu's Ashango-Land,
page 264.
" The best sort of Makololo huts consist of three circular walls,
with small holes as doors, each similar to that in a dog-house ;
and it is necessary to bend down the body to get in, even when on
all-fours.The roof is formed of reeds or straight sticks, in shape
likea Chinaman's hat, bound firmly together with circular bands,
which are lashed with the strong inner bark of the mimosa-tree.
When all prepared except the thatch, it is lifted on to the circular
wall, the rim resting on a circle of poles, between each of which
the third wall is built. The roof is thatched with fine grass, and
sewed with the same material as the lashings and, as it projects
;
far beyond the walls, and reaches within four feet of the ground,
the shade is the best to be found in the country. These huts are
very cool in the hottest day, but are close and deficient in ventila-
tion by night." Livingstone's Africa, page 225.
" The
Bosjesman has no settled residence his whole life is
;
that he passes two nights together on the same spot. One excep-
tion may, however, be found to this general rule, and that is,
when he has eaten till he is perfectly gorged that is to say, when
;
he has for several days together had as much as his almost incred-
ible voracity can possibly eat. Such a revelry is followed by a
sleep, or at least a fit of indolence, which will continue even for
weeks, and which at last becomes so delightful to him, that he
had rather buckle the girdle of emptiness round him, than submit
to such an exertion as going to the chase, or catching insects. He
is fond of taking up his abode for the night in caverns
among the
mountains, or clefts in the rocks in the plain he makes himself
;
a hole in the ground, or gets into the midst of a bush, where, bend-
ing the boughs around him, they are made to serve as a shelter
against the weather, against an enemy, or against wild beasts. A
bush that has served many times in this way as the retreat of a
Bosjesman, and the points of whose bent boughs are beginning to
grow again upwards, has perfectly the appearance of an immense
14
158 PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE NEGRO RACE.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GRADUAL DECREASE AND PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE
NEGRO RACE.
" I HAVE been struck with the
steady decrease of the population,
even during the short time I have been in Africa, on the coast
and in the interior but before I account for it, let me raise my
;
tilation had already taken place before the white man came ;
the
white man noticed but could not stop it.
it, Populous tribes
whom I saw for a second time, and who had seen no white man
and his fiery water, have decreased, and this decrease took place
before the terrible plague that desolated the land had made its
appearance. The negroes themselves acknowledge the decrease.
Clans in the life-time of old men have entirely disappeared in ;
negro race has run its course, and that in due course of time it
will disappear, as many races of mankind have done before him ?
The Southern America were, I believe, the only country
States of
in which the negro is known to have increased." Du Chailltfs
Asliango-Land, page 435.
" It is
impossible to conceal one's fears for the ultimate exist-
ence of most of the colored races in South Africa I mean those, ;
in the first instance, within the colony, and those in the neighbor-
hood of places where the emigrant Boers have lately settled.
The lands of the native tribes become gradually encroached on ;
160 PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE NEGRO RACE.
" At
present, it appears to me that the prospects of the colored
races of South Africa, taken on the broadest scale, are such as
Christian philanthropy may weep over. I see no prospect of their
preservation for any very lengthened period. struggle may The
last for a considerable time. Missionary effort not only save may
many of the souls of men, but help to defer the evil day of anni-
hilation as to many of the aboriginal tribes. But annihilation is
advancing and nothing can arrest it without an entire
steadily ;
" How the negro has lived so many ages without advancing,
seems marvellous, when all the countries surrounding Africa are
so forward in comparison and judging from the progressive
;
state of the world, one is led to suppose that the African must
soon either step out from his darkness, or be superseded by a
being superior to himself. Could a government be formed for
them like ours in India, they would be saved but, without it, I;
fear there is very little chance for at present the African neither
;
anxiety on hand looking out for his food to think of anything else.
As his fathers ever did, so does he. He works his wife, sells his
children, enslaves all he can lay hands upon, and, unless when
fighting for the property of others, contents himself with drinking,
singing, and dancing like a baboon, to drive dull care away."
Speke's Africa, page 24.
Negro, like the Indian, the Caffre, the Carib, and the Australian,
would become extinct before the rude shock of the war, and the
coiTosive venom of our vices. The slave in Louisiana had
become free, de facto, and in a qualified sense but, alas his
;
!
CHAPTER XXIX.
NATURAL, REPULSIVE, AND IRRECONCILABLE POINTS OP DIFFER-
ENCE, PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND MORAL, BETWEEN THE WHITES
AND THE BLACKS.*
" So
great a difference of opinion has ever existed upon the
intrinsic value of the negro, that the very perplexity of the ques-
tion isa proof that he is altogether a distinct variety. So long as
it is generally considered that the negro and the white man are to
be governed by the same laws and guided by the same manage-
ment, so long will the former remain a thorn in the side of every
community to which he may unhappily belong. When the horse
and the ass shall be found to match in double harness, the white
man and the African black will pull together under the same re-
gime. It is the grand error of equalizing that which is unequal
that has lowered the negro character, and made the black man a
their one idea was power, force that could obtain all, the
strong hand that could wrest from the weak. In disgust I fre-
quently noted the feelings of the moment in my journal, a mem-
orandum from which I copy as illustrative of the time.
1863,
'
* For a and more minute elucidation of the physical, mental, and moral
fuller
differences which exist between white people and negroes, see the remaining por-
tions of this work, especially the next succeeding chapter, entitled "American
Writers on the Negro." The testimonies given in the present chapter are almost
exclusively those of intelligent white travellers, who have seen (and who, as care-
ful and correct observers, have always seen only with indignation and disgust) the
ness, and cruelty. All are thieves, idle, envious, and ready to
plunder and enslave their weaker neighbors.'" Baker's Great
Basin of the Nile, page 164.
negro mind has grown in body, but has not advanced in intellect.
The puppy of three months old is superior in intellect to a child
of the same age, but the mind of the child expands, Avhile that of
the dog has arrived at its limit. The chicken of the common fowl
has sufficient power and instinct to run in search of food the mo-
ment that it leaves the egg, while the young of the eagle lies
helpless in its nest ;
but the young eagle outstrips the chicken in
the course of time. The earth presents a wonderful example of
variety in all classes of thehuman race, the animal and vegetable
kingdoms. People, beasts, and plants belonging to distinct class-
es, exhibit special qualities and peculiarities. The existence of
many hundred varieties of dogs cannot interfere with the fact that
they belong to one genus, the greyhound, pug, bloodhound,
pointer, poodle, mastiff, and terrier, are all as entirely different
in their peculiar instincts as are the varieties of the human race.
The different fruits and flowers continue the example, the wild
grapes of the forest are grapes, but, although they belong to the
same class, they are distinct from the luscious Muscatel and the ;
every group is divided into varieties, all differing from each other,
and each distinguished by some peculiar excellence or defect."
Baker's Oreat Basin of the Nile, page 195.
" The
negro is a being who invents nothing, originates nothing,
improves nothing; who can only cook, nurse, and fiddle; who
164 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITES AND BLACKS.
has neither energy nor industry, save in rare cases, that prove the
rule ;
he is the self-constituted thrall that delights in subjection
to, and in imitation of, the superior races. The Aboriginal Amer-
ican has never been known to slave ; the African, since he landed
in Virginia, in 1620, has chosen nothing else has never, until
;
shelling grain, with a song; and for long hours at night the
peasants will sit in a ring repeating, with a zest that never flags,
the same few notes, and the same unmeaning line." Burtori*
Africa, page 468.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITES AND BLACKS. 165
"
Devotedly fond of music, the negro's love of tune has invented
nothing but whistling and the whistle his instruments are all
;
few notes without sense or rhyme, and repeats them till they
nauseate. . When mourning, the love of music assumes
. .
"
Up to the age of fourteen, the black children advance as fast
as the white, but after that age, unless there be an admixture of
white blood, it becomes, in most instances, extremely difficult to
cany them forward." Sir Charles LyelVs Second Visit to the United
States, Vol. I., page 105.
the hare plays on a drum in its native state and that it is the na-
;
"
I found his majesty sitting upon a bullock's hide, warming
himself before a large fire ; for the Afi'icans are sensible of the
smallest variation in the temperature of the air, and frequently
complain of cold when a European is oppressed with heat."
Mungo Park's First Journal, page 41.
"
They seem to have no social tenderness, very few of those
amiable private virtues which would win our affection, and none
of those public qualities that claim respect or command admira-
tion. The love of country is not strong enough in their bosoms
to incite them to defend it against the irregular incursions of a
" The
Bosjesmans, indeed, are amongst the ugliest of all hu-
man beings. The flat nose, high cheek-bones, prominent chin,
and concave visage, partake much of the apish character, which
their keen eye, always in motion, tends not to diminish. The
upper lid of this organ, as in that of the Chinese, is rounded into
the lower on the side next the nose, and forms not an angle, as is
the case in the eye of a European, but a circular sweep, so that
the point of union between the upper and lower eyelid is not as-
certainable. Their bellies are uncommonly protuberant, and
their backs hollow. . . .( As a means of increasing their speed
in the chase, or when pursued by an enemy, the men had adopted
a custom, which was sufficiently remarkable, of pushing the tes-
upper part of the root of the penis, where they seemed
ticles to the
to remain as firmly fixed, and as conveniently placed, as if nature
had stationed them there." Barrow's Africa, Vol. /., page 234.^
" The
great curvature of the spine inwards, and the remark-
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITES AND BLACKS. 169
" When two Namaquas are talking together, and one is relat-
ing a story, the listener repeats the last words of the speaker, even
if he should know as much of the matter as his informant. For
instance, if a man begin his recital by saying, As I walked along
'
"
Unfortunately the people are altogether deficient of any ra-
tional or charitable feeling. Music is scarcely known, or indeed
any other exertion of the mind calculated to correct or improve the
1'
natural passions. Duncan's Africa, Vol. I., page 199.
" In
every part of the United States, there is a broad nnd im-
passable line of demarcation between every man who has one
drop of African blood in his veins, and every other class in the
community. The habits, the feelings, all the prejudices of society,
prejudices which neither refinement, nor argument, nor educa-
tion, nor religion itself, can subdue, mark the people of color,
whether bond or free, as the subjects of a degradation inevitable
and incurable. The African in this country belongs by birth to the
very lowest station in society and from that station he can never
;
rise, be his talents, his enterprise, his virtues what they may."
African Repository, Vol. IV., page 118.
" The
typical woolly-haired races have never invented a reasoned
or reasonable theological system; discovered an alphabet; framed
a grammatical language nor made the least step in science or
;
" The is not wholly without talents, but they are limited
negro
to imitation, the learning of what has been previously known.
He has neither invention nor judgment. Africans may be consid-
ered docile, but few of them are judicious, and thus in mental
qualities we are disposed to see a certain analogy with the apes,
whose imitative powers are proverbial." Burmeister^s Black Man,
page 14.
page 16.
" On several
occasions, when I met with a negro with a physi-
ognomy that pleased me, I attempted to begin a conversation with
him, in order to discover his intellectual and spiritual character-
istics, after having studied his body. The result, however, uni-
versally satisfied me of his deficiencies in this respect, and served
to confirm me in my opinion that the negro cares only for those
things which belong to the very lowest grades of the human fam-
ily." Burmeister's Black Man, page 12.
" The
thermometer, placed upon a deal box in the sun, rose to
138. It stood at 108 in the shade by day, and 96 at sunset. If
my experiments were correct, the blood of a European is of a
higher temperature than that of an African. The bulb, held
under my tongue, stood at 100 under that of the natives, at
;
CHAPTER XXX.
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
'
I concur entirely in your leading principles of gradual eman-
cipation, of establishment on the coast of Africa, and the patron-
age of our nation until the emigrants shall be able to protect
themselves. The subordinate details might be easily arranged.
But the bare proposition of purchase by the United States gener-
ally would excite infinite indignation in all the States north of
Maryland. The sacrifice must fall on the States alone which hold
them and the difficult question will be how to lessen this so as to
;
doing this, we may make to them some retribution for the long
course of injuries we have been committing on their population.
. . The second object, and the most interesting to us, as
.
" The
proverbs of Theognis, like those of Solomon, are ob-
178 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
page 364.
" It is a
question of races, involving consequences which go to
the destruction of one or the other. This was seen fifty years
ago, and the wisdom of Virginia balked at it then. It seems to
be above human reason now. But there is a wisdom above hu-
man, and to that we must look. In the mean time do not extend
the evil." Thomas Hart Benton.
" Of the
utility of a total separation of the two incongruous por-
tions of our population (supposing it to be practicable) none have
ever doubted. The mode of accomplishing that desirable object
has alone divided public opinion. Colonization in Hayti for a
time had its partisans. Without throwing any impediments in
the way of executing that scheme, the American Colonization
Society has steadily adhered to its own. The Haytien project has
passed away. Colonization beyond the Stony Mountains has
sometimes been proposed but it would be attended with an ex-
;
" How natural has it been to assume that the motive of those
who have protested against the extension of slavery was an un-
natural sympathy with the negro, instead of what it always has
really been concern for the welfare of the white man,'' Wil-
liam H. Reward. Speech at Detroit, September 4, 186Q.
180 AMERICAN WR1TEES ON THE NEGRO.
" The
great fact is now fully realized that the African race here
is a foreign and feeble element, like the Indians, incapable of as-
" I am
not, and never have been, in favor of making voters or
jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to
intermarry with whites and I will say further, in addition to this,
;
"
Why should not the people of your race be colonized ? Why
should they not leave this country ? This is, perhaps, the first
question for consideration. You and we are a different race.
We have between us a broader difference than exists between
almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong,
I need not discuss but this physical difference is a great disad-
;
of them by living with us, while ours suffer from your pi'esence.
In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it shows
a reason why we should be separated. You, here, are freemen,
I suppose. Perhaps you have long been free, or all your lives.
Your race are suffering, in my opinion, the greatest wrong
inflicted on any people. But even when you cease to be
slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an
-
equality with the white race. You are still cut off from many
of the advantages which are enjoyed by the other race. The
aspiration of man is to enjoy equality with the best when free ;
but on this broad continent not a single man of your race is made
the equal of ours. Go where you are treated the best, and the
ban is still upon you. I do not propose to discuss this, but to
present it as a fact with which we have to deal. I cannot alter it
if I would. It is a fact about which we all think and feel alike.
We look to our conditions owing to the existence of the races on
this continent. I need not recount to you the effects upon white
men growing out of the institution of slavery. I believe in its
general evil effects upon the white race. See our present condi-
tion. The country is engaged in war. Our white men are cut-^
ting each other's throats, none knowing how far their frenzy may
extend and then consider what we know to be the truth. But
;
for your race among us, there could not be a war, although many
men engaged on either side do not care for you one way or the
other. Nevertheless, I repeat, without the institution of slavery,
and the colored race as a basis, the war could not have had an
existence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated. I
know that there are free men among you who, even if they could
better their condition, are not as much inclined to go out of the
country as those who, being slaves, could obtain their freedom on
this condition. I suppose one of the principal difficulties in the
way of colonization is, that the free colored man cannot see that
his comfort would be advanced by it. You may believe you can
live in Washington, or elsewhere in the United States, the re-
mainder of your lives, perhaps more comfortably than you could
in any foreign country. Hence you may come to the conclusion
that you have nothing to do with the idea of going to a foreign
country. This (I speak in no unkind sense) is an extremely sel-
fish view of the case. But you ought to do something to help
those who are not so fortunate as yourselves. . . For the .
16
182 AMERICAN WRITERS ON TBS NEGRO.
"
government was made by white men, for the
I believe this
benefit of white men and
their posterity forever and I am in
;
This not less obvious to the Phillips school than it is to the Cal-
is
practical effect. A
theorist, not living in a community where
diverse races are brought in contact in masses, may stifle the voice
'
of nature in hisown bosom, and, from a determination to live up
to a mistaken view of the doctrine, go so far as to extend social
intercourse to individuals of the subject race. But few even of
such persons would pursue their theories so far as amalgamation
and other legitimate consequences of their logic." Montgomery
Blair. Letter read at the Cooper Institute, N. Y., March 6, 1863.
end. But to confer it now upon their ignorant hordes can only a
degrade the ballot and the republican institutions which rest upon |
it. No answer view has ever been given, no answer can
to this
be given, by the friends of universal negro suffrage, except this :
|
" The is allowed to not let the
ignorant foreigner vote, why igno-
rant negro vote ? Thus to compare the civilized European, accus-
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 185
those States during the whole war did all in their power to sustain
the rebel cause ? They fed their armies
they dug their trenches
; ;
love that liberty, who are ready to struggle and if need be to die
rather than allow it to be overthrown in the name of the coming
;
generations and that race to which we belong and which has given
to the world do arraign and impeach the rad-
all its civilization, I
donment of the purpose for which the war was prosecuted, of the
idea upon which we fought and mastered a rebellion." James
Doolittle.
.
Speech at Hartford, Conn., March 11, 1868.
"
I know it is said that the objection which is felt on the part of
the white population of this country to living side by side in social
and civil equality with the negro race is all a mere prejudice of
caste. But its foundations are laid deeper than mere prejudice.
It is an instinct of our nature. Men may theorize on the condi-
tion of the two races living together, but the thing is impossible ;
the instincts of both parties are against it." Senator Loolittle,
of Wisconsin.
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 187
Ohio, but it is equally true that what you refuse to permit here
you are asked to impose upon others. It is equally true that what
you have solemnly condemned, a Radical Congress may impose
upon you in spite of your condemnation, impose upon you by
an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified
by other States, though rejected by Ohio. If you would guard
against negro suffrage, if you would guard against political
equality with the negro, you must not be satisfied with sending its
opponents to the Legislature of your own State, but you must
keep its advocates out of the halls of Congress." Senator Thur-
man, of Ohio. Speech at Mansfield, Jan. 21, 1868.
" Whatever
may have been the sympathies of the North on the
question of freedom from slavery, you need not think they will be
with the negro in this horrible contest now imminent; for when
the northern man sees the mother and children escaping from the
188 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
congressional policy that places the white race under the power
and government of the negroes, and seeks to establish negro
States in the Union. . . You have taken the robes of polit-
.
ical power off the shoulders of white men, and you have put
them upon the shoulders of negroes. Gentlemen may moralize
in solemn tones, as if they came from the tomb, about the gal-
" I lay down the propositions that the white and black races
thrive best apart ; that a commingling of these races is a detri-
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 189
ment to both it does not elevate the black, and it onl} de-
;
that
That will not be denied. "When Minnesota came here for admis-
sion, that was settled. But my colleague seems to admit that
political privileges, like may be fixed by State
that of suffrage,
laws. Indeed, the Supreme Court have decided that the State
has the exclusive right so to do. If so, by what reason can a State
deprive the black race of the right of suffrage, on which depend
all laws, all protection, all assessment of taxes, all punishments,
even the matter of life and death, and yet not have power to for-
bid such black race, as a dangerous element, from mingling with
its population The Constitution of Illinois, just submitted to the
!
The right and power to exclude Africans from the States north
190 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
" The Caucasian, or white man is five feet and between nine
and ten inches high the Esquimaux four feet and seven inches
;
is
one-eighth longer and one-ninth broader than the white man's ;
his forearm is one-tenth shorter and the same is true of the bones
;
a brother,' claim that all the wide and impassable differences which
are found between the races or types of men have been pro-
duced by accidental causes, by climate, and by amalgamations.
I have already, for the present at least, sufficiently answered the
climatic part of this proposition, and have only to say that if it be
true, as held by my Radical friends, that the negro is a man and
a brother,' that he is the offspring of Adam, that there was, in
other words, but one race at first, how there could have been
' '
amalgamations I cannot imagine. Amalgamation, in the sense
in which they use it, implies a plurality of races, just what ethnol-
'
ogists claim ;
but in fact it upsets the Radical theory of the
unity
of races,' upon Avhich must depend their whole argument in favor
of equality and fraternity.' For as soon as they admit that the
'
races are of different origins they can no longer claim that all
races are equal, any more than they can claim that the horse
and the ass are equal. The principle on which the argu-
ment rests is identical. . . .
Miscegenation is a subject of
those gentlemen who are moulding and shaping the policy and
laws and regulations for our government, fail to be guided by
experience and science and history in shaping a policy to pre-
vent amalgamation, miscegenation, social and political equality
of the different races, white, black, red, yellow, and brown, our
nation will be suffocated, as it were, by these foolish and suicidal
projects, these Utopian schemes of equality of races." William
Mungen. Speech in the House of Representatives, July 10, 1867.
" There are two other subjects or sciences which bear impor-
tant testimony relative to the origin of types of the human races ;
I allude to embryology and cranioscopy. I do not profess to un-
192 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
they enact are always peculiar, and are different from the laws
enacted by any other type of people. The people of China,
Japan, India, in short the greater portion of the types of man,
are embraced and included between sixty-eight and eighty-four
cubic inches of brain. The nationalities whose brain measures
ninety-four cubic inches or upward are the only nationalities who
are progressive and enlightened, who are capable of cultivating the
physical sciences to practical results, and whose governments are
made for the benefit of the people. Cranioscopy declares that the
different types have each a different organization, in other words,
a different creation ; and it further declares that there are as plainly
different kinds of men, having different kinds of humanities in the
world as there are different kinds of beasts that the horse and the
;
ox are not more certainly different creations than the white man and
the Indian, the Indian and the African, the African and the Chinese,
the Chinaman and the Esquimaux. ... I have discussed this ques-
tion of races, because it lies at the foundation of our social and polit-
ical structure. All history shows that a free government, adminis-
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 193
not the place nor the hour for metaphysical or psychological dis-
cussion. Every feature of the white man and negro differs. The
nose is different.The nostrils of a Caucasian form two nearly
rectangular triangles, the hypothenuses of which are turned out-
wards, whilst the septum of the nose forms a perpendicular line
common to the two triangles. On taking a similar view of the
negro, the nostrils present only a transverse aperture, or the
figure of a horizontal eight united in the middle by the nasal sep-
tum. The form and size of the mouth, the shape of the lips and
cheeks are very different. The apish chin of the negro differs
very essentially from that of the white man. The facial angle of
the distinguished writer, Camper, amounts in the negro to 70.75
17
194 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
that early age the negro youth does not advance as does the
white youth. While the white man is increasing in knowledge till
the day of his death, the negro reaches before the age of maturity
a point beyond which he cannot well advance in anything save in
the arts, of mere imitation." James Brooks. Speech in the House
of Representatives, December 18, 1867.
with astonishment and affright upon la belle riviere of Ohio. But all
this time these heroic Hidalgos of Spain were spreading the name
and fame of and Arragon throughout the whole American
Castile
hands and feet with fetters of gold, and, nominally slaves, they
are really the masters of our destiny." Fisher's Laws of Race,
page 30.
"
Surely no argument is necessary to prove that a nation must
be happier, wiser, richer, more powerful, and more glorious, where
the whole people are of the strongest, most intellectual, and most
moral race of mankind, than where any portion of the people are
degraded by nature, and incapable of progress or civilization.
Barbarism is barbarism, whether in Africa or America; and a
country inhabited by barbarians cannot be civilized. Just in pro-
portion to the number of its barbarians is it wanting in the ele-
ments of civilization, and just in that proportion, too, is it weak
and liable to overthrow from dangers within and without."
Fisher's Laics of Race, page 33.
body, which yield the least profit, and are menial and degrading.
The negro out of churches, theatres,
spirit of caste drives the
and steamboats, or assigns to him, in them, a
hotels, rail-cars,
place apart. It drives him into the cellars, dens, and alleys of
towns, into hovels in the country and it does all this without
;
"
Strikingly apparent is it that the negro is a fellow of many
natural defects and deformities. The wretched race to which he
belongs exhibits, among its several members, more cases of lusus
natures,than any other. Seldom, indeed, is he to be seen except
as a preordained embodiment of uncouth grotesqueness, malfor-
mation, or ailments. Not only is he cursed with a black com-
plexion, an apish aspect, and a woolly head; he is also rendered
odious by an intolerable stench, a thick skull, and a booby brain.
An accurate description of him calls into requisition a larger num-
ber of uncomplimentary terms than are necessary to be used in
describing any other creature out of Tophet and it is truly as-
;
stuttering speech ;
and his general actions, evidencing monkey-
like littleness and imbecility of mind. By close attention and ex-
amination, we may also discover in the sable individual before us,
if,indeed, he be not an exception to the generality of his race,
numerous other prominent defects and deficiencies. Admit that
he be not warp-jawed, maffle-tongued, nor tongued-tied, is he
not skue-sighted, blear-eyed, or blobber-lipped? If he be not
wry-necked, wen-marked, nor shoulder-shotten, is he not stiff-
jointed, hump-backed, or hollow-bellied? If he be not slab-
sided, knock-kneed, nor bow-legged, is he not (to say the least)
spindle-shanked, cock-heeled, or flat-footed? If he be not
maimed, halt, nor blind, is he not feverish with inflammations,
festerings, or fungosities? If he be not afflicted with itch, blains,
nor blisters, does he not squirm under the pains of boils, burns, or
bruises ? If he be not the child of contusions, sprains, nor dislo-
cations, is he not the man of scalds, sores, or scabs? If he be not
an endurer of the aches of pneumonia, pleurisy, nor rheumatism,
does he not feel the fatal exacerbations of rankling wounds, tu-
mors, or ulcers? If he be no complainer over the cramps of
coughs, colics, nor constipation, doth he not decline and droop
under the discomforts of dizziness, dropsy, or diarrhoea ? If he be
200 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
apparel more than two or three weeks before the outer edges of
the same become ragged then unsightly holes and shreds and
;
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 201
mains what he always has been, and still is, a negro. Further
attempts, on our part, to elevate him to a rank equal to that held
by the white man, would certainly betray in us an extraordinary
and unpardonable degree of folly and obtuseness. . . Ne-
.
groes are, in truth, so far inferior to white people, that, for many
reasons consequent on that inferiority, the two races should never
inhabit the same community, city, nor state. The good which
accrues to the black from the privileges of social contact with the
white is more than counterpoised by the evils which invariably
overtake the latter when brought into any manner of regular
fellowship with the former.
" Whatever determination
may be come to with regard to a
finalsettlement or disposition of the negroes, whether it be de-
cided to colonize them in Africa, in Mexico, in Central America,
in South America, or in one or more of the West India Islands, or
elsewhere beyond our present limits or whether they be permit-
;
"
Only from the base colored races is it, as a rule, that we are
overwhelmed and prostrated by wide-spread contagions and epi-
demics. Even the cattle-plague, the murrain among the sheep,
and other fatal distempers to which our domestic animals are
subject, have almost invariably had their origin in the countries
which are inhabited by the blacks and the browns, who are them-
selves but the rickety-framed and leprous remnants pf those
204 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
" When the negro in Africa, in the year 1620, fastening anew
upon both himself and his posterity the condition of perpetual
bondage, allowed himself, as a guaranty of his passive and pro-
digious dastardy, to be brought in chains all the way across the
Atlantic, it was then that, for the first time, was reached the
" The
negroes, like the poodles and the pointers, will always
be the dependents and the parasites of white men, just so long
as white men, unnaturally submitting to a wrongful relation, are
disposed to tolerate the black men's infamously base and beggarly
pi'esence. . Certain it is that we owe it to ourselves
. . and
we ought to be able to get rid of the negroes soon but if they
;
"
When, under the auspices of monarchical institutions when, ;
"
Under the euphemism of Removal,' the American government
'
has already expelled, and rightly expelled, from time to time, more
than one hundred thousand Indians from the States of the Atlantic
slope, to the wild lands west of the Mississippi, these expulsions
by the government having been independently of the less systemat-
ic but (in the aggregate) much larger expulsions ly unorganized
18
206 AMERICAN WRITERS O-V THE KEGRO.
" The
negro should never, under any circumstances whatever,
be permitted to reside in greater proximity to white people than
the distance which separates Cuba from the United States if the ;
'
To live in juxtaposition with the negro, or to tolerate his pres-
ence even in the vicinity of white men, is, to say the least, a
most shameful and disgraceful proceeding, a proceeding which,
if persisted in, will, sooner or later, bring down upon all those
testable proofs of the fact that he is, and ever has been, equally
with his master, a sheer accomplice in the crime of slavery."
Helper's Nojoque, page 284.
" It was
by no merit nor suggestion of his own, but rather by
the demerits of both himself and his master, that the negro was
brought to America. Not by any spirit of commendable enter-
prisewas he induced to immigrate hither. He came under com-
pulsion and under compulsion he must (in the event of the fail-
;
was not of his own choosing, was not at his own option, it was
it
negro came hither from Africa. Therefore, for these and other
sufficient reasons, the negro should have no voice, no part, nor lot,
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 209
" After
twenty years of observation and reflection, during which
period I have always approached this subject with diffidence and
caution ; after investigating for myself the remarkable diversities
of opinion to which it has given rise, and after weighing the diffi-
culties that beset it on every side, I can find no satisfactory ex-
planation of the diverse phenomena that characterize physical
man, excepting in the doctrine of an original plurality of races."
Samuel George Morton. Types of Mankind, page 305.
" For
my own part, if I could believe that the human race had
its origin in incest, I should think .that I had at once got the clue
to all ungodliness. Two lines of catechism would explain more
than all the theological discussions since the Christian era. I have
put it into rhyme :
" The
negro has never taken one step towards mental develop-
ment, as we understand it. He has never invented an alphabet,
that primal starting-point in mental cultivation, he has never
comprehended even the simplest numerals, in short, has had no
instruction except that which is verbal and imitated, which the
child copies from the parents, which is limited to the existing gen-
eration and therefore the present generation are in the same con-
;
212 AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO.
reflective faculties in the white are now called into action, the real
Caucasian character now opens, the mental forces fairly evolved,
while the negro remains stationary, a perpetual child. The
negro of forty or fifty has more experience or knowledge, per-
haps, as the white man of that age has a more extended knowl-
edge than the man of twenty-five but the intellectual calibre
,
the
actual mental capacity in the former case is no greater than it
was at fifteen, when its utmost limits were reached."
Negroes and Negro Slavery, page 219.
"White husbands and wives, when one dies in early life, often
remain unmarried, faithful to a memory forever and ;
more
still
ful to the progress and prosperity *of the community; if you set
them free, they are not desirable for citizens. There is
. . .
than that the point of the exclusion of slavery from free territory
should be yielded, and which was prosecuted in a great measure
for the extinction of slavery where it had been already established,
must have as its result the elevation of the negro to the political
and social level of the dominant race, or else that its professed
most of them much compassion for, the race against whom the
wrong was committed. You in Europe seemed to be thinking
about the individual negroes we, in the mass, thought little or
;
tle, firm, wise men, with large souls, and wide sympathies, who
can control men, and particularly young men, by mere personal
influence, so that when the under-graduates were unruly or had a
grievance, they would give up at once to Dr. for pure love,
when his colleagues could do nothing, and all the terrors of college
discipline were laughed to scorn, this man went to the South on
a tour of observation, and was placed in authority, as far as slavery
was concerned, over a considerable reclaimed district by one of our
most eminent generals. For years before the war he had been
one of our strongest anti-slavery men, and had by his writings
done as much as any one person in the countiy, who was not a
professed journalist or politician, to bring about the state of pub-
lic feeling that provoked secession. I met him on his return home,
and had not talked with him three minutes before he said to me,
'
I come back hating slavery more than ever, but loathing the
negro with an unutterable loathing. What a curse to have that
people on our hands And not long ago, one of the editors of
!
'
'"
negroes somewhere else ! Richard Grant White. Letter to the
London Spectator, 1865.
while most of the evil has fallen to the white man's share."
Parian's Gen. Butler in New Orleans, page 99.
AMERICAN WRITERS ON THE NEGRO. 215
" The
population in America of European extraction has grown
so large, and the accessions to it by immigration are so vast, that
we can begin to see that the mission of the negro here is nearly
completed, and that the limits of his possible expansion may be
computed. In fifty years, the white races now in the United
States, and their descendants, will number more than one hun-
dred millions. While it is impossible to predict exactly the march
of this great multitude, or to define precisely the regions it will
" The
experiment of Africanizing America has had a long trial,
of more than three centuries, and has failed at all points and in
every particular. Of course, it was not expected to bring civili-
zation and the arts to the New World, and it has failed even to
populate it. The policy of Africanization ought now to be given
up but whether given up or not, it must soon yield to a new and
;
'*
Anatomy, physiology, and microscopy concur in proving that
the negro is of a distinct and inferior species to the Caucasian ;
CHAPTER XXXI.
MULATTOES; THE OFFSPRING OF CRIMES AGAINST NATURE.
" IN
1842, 1 published a short essay on Hybridity, the object of
which was, to show that the white man and the negro were
distinct species, illustrating my position by numerous facts from
the natural history of man and that of the lower animals. The
question, at that time, had not attracted the attention of Dr. Mor-
ton. Many of my facts and alignments were new, even to him ;
MULATTOES; THE OFFSPRING OF CRIMES. 217
and drew from the great anatomist a private letter, leading to the
commencement of a friendly correspondence, to me, at least, most
agreeable and instructive, and which endured to the close of his
useful career.
" In the
essay alluded to, and in several which followed it at
short intervals, I maintained these propositions :
"It was not until the discovery of a new world that races of
man of strikingly contrasted qualities came to intermix. In the
Western world, the intermixture of nations which followed the
conquests first of the Romans, and afterwards of the northern na-
species that have the nearest resemblances. And when the mule-
breeds, that are thus produced by these forced conjunctions, hap-
pen to be fruitful, which is seldom the case, this fecundity never
continues beyond a few generations, and would not probably pro-
ceed so far, without a continuance of the same cares which ex-
cited it at first. Thus we never see in a wild state intermediate
productions between the hare and the rabbit, between the stag
and the doe, or between the martin and the weasel. But the
power of man changes this established order, and contrives to
produce all these intermixtures of which the various species are
susceptible, but which they would never produce if left to them-
selves." Cuvier. Theory of the Earth, page 118.
" In
regard to the sterility of hybrids in successive generations;
though Gartner was enabled to rear some hybrids, carefully guid-
ing them from a cross with either pure parent, for six or seven,
and in one case for ten generations, yet he asserts positively that
their fertility never increased, but generally greatly decreased.
I do not doubt that it is usually the case, and that the fertility often
MULATTOS S; THE OFFSPRING OF CHIMES. 219
ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast,
and lie down thereto, thou Shalt kill the woman and the beast ;
they shall surely be put to death." Leviticus XX. 15.
" Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind thou
;
shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed." Leviticus XIX. 19.
" Thou
shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds, lest the
thy seed which thou hast sown and the fruit of thy vine-
fruit of
A R
| ;
call it 2 (quarteroon), being \ negro blood.
4 Z
" Let the third
crossing be of q and C their offspring will be ;
C A B C
q
-H
2
.
'
a
2
=
8842
h
,
.
negro blood.
8
.
'
8 4 884 H H , wherein
.
we find f of a, or
4
-4- --
4
|-
'
a A ---
B s 6
A ---
B c 5
-- h n
i
r
c
= --h .
H
| I
wherein a makes
16 16 8 4 16 16 8 4 16
still a mulatto.
" Let the half of the blood of each will be
q and e cohabit ;
22 884 16 16 8 4 16 16
-- -, wherein
f-
'
of a is no longer a mulatto and thus may ;
8 4 16
every compound be noted and summed, the sum of the fractions
composing the blood of the issue being always equal to unit. It
is understood in natural history that a fourth cross of one race of
blood. Our canon considers two crosses with the pure white, and
a third with any degree of mixture, however small, as clearing
the issue of the negro blood." Jefferson's Works, Vol. VL, page
436. Letter to Francis C. Gray, March 4, 1815.
"
Amalgamation in races is more than a revolution in govern-
ment. It is an attempt to make a fundamental change in the
laws of nature, and, by blending different species of the human
race, create a hybrid nation. This will prove to be an impossi-
bility. The red, white, and black races have mingled very freely
19*
222 MULATTOES; THE OFFSPRING OF CRIMES.
on this continent, but the hybrids gradually wear out, while the
old stock preserves its original type. The French, from the in-
fancy of discovery on this continent, intermarried with the Indian
tribes.But where is the French tribe of Indians to be found ?
They made the same experiment with the blacks in St. Domingo,
and a mongrel race appeared, for a time, of various tints, but it
is gradually vanishing. So the old Spanish blood that mixed with
that of the Indians in Spanish America has almost run out, and
Indians and Spaniards are as incongruous with each other as in
the beginning, and the fatal result of this attempted amalgama-
tion is shown in the degradation of both races, and in the insta-
country on the part of the white freeman to the black man, con-
trasted by his servile condition, from his first appearance among
us, as strongly as by his ebony skin and curled hair, certainly
shows that nothing short of insanity could hope to reconcile the
dominant, and, I might say, the domineering race, to such a con-
junction." Montgomery Blair. Speech at Concord, N. H., June
17, 1863.
nature ;
that he is always, even from his earliest infancy,
and yet mulattoes and negroes are the sort of creatures with
whom Radical politicians would populate American States !
CHAPTER XXXII.
ALBINOS; WHITE NEGROES AND OTHER CREATURES OF SUPER-
NATURAL WHITENESS.
" WILL now add a short account of an
I anomaly of nature, tak-
ing place sometimes in the race of negroes brought from Africa,
who, though black themselves, have, in rare instances, white
children, called albinos. I have known four of these myself, and
have faithful accounts of three others. The circumstances in
which all the individuals agree are these They are of a pallid
:
see much better in the night than we do. They are the prop-
erty of Colonel Skipwith, of Cumberland. The fourth is a negro
woman, whose parents came from Guinea, and had three other
children, who were of their own color. She is freckled, and her
eyesight so weak that she is obliged to wear a bonnet in the sum-
mer; but it is better in the night than day. She had an albino
child, by a black man. It died at the age of a few weeks. These
were the property of Colonel Carter, of Albermarle. A sixth in-
stance is a woman, the property of a Mr. Butler, near Petersburg.
She is stout and robust, has issue a daughter, jet-black, by a black
roan. I am not informed as to her eyesight. The seventh in-
stance is of a male belonging to a Mr. Lee, of Cumberland. His
eyes are tremulous and weak. He is tall of stature, and now ad-
vanced in years. He is the only male of the albinos which have
come within my information. Whatever be the cause of the dis-
ease in the skin, or in the coloring matter, which produces this
change, it seems more incident to the female than male sex. To
these I may add the mention of a negro man within my own
knowledge, born black, and of black parents on whose chin,;
chin, lips, one cheek, the under jaw, and neck on that side. It is
of the albino white, without any mixture of red, and has for sev-
eral years been stationary. He is robust and healthy, and the
change of color was not accompanied with any sensible disease
either general or topical." Jefferson's Works, Vol. V1I1., page
318.
the features of the negro and the peculiar woolly form of the hair,
the color of the skin was white like pearl, and the hair resembled
that of the whitest horse. The eye, instead of the jet-black hue,
which seems given to the inhabitants of the tropics to enable them
to bear the intense glare of the sun, was like that of the white
rabbit and ferret, and like this better suited for use in the moon-
light, and in places sheltered from the light of day. From this
inability to bear the light, which, however, is said to be much ex-
aggerated, Linnaeus called the albinos nocturnal men. They
generally lack the strength of other men ; and a peculiar harsh-
ness of the skin, such as is noticed in cases of leprosy, would seem
to indicate that the phenomenon might result from a diseased or-
" Albinos
may be found in almost every community in Southern
Guinea. Everywhere they are regarded as somewhat sacred, and
their persons are considered inviolable. On no condition what-
ever would a man strike one of them. Generally they are very
mild and I have never heard of their taking advantage of their
;
page 311.
thrown into the water, with a weight round her neck to prevent
her floating, thus obviating the possibility of an escape." Ten
Years' Wanderings among the Ethiopians, by Thomas J. Nutchinson,
F. R. O. S.
" A curious
superstition is connected with Parrot Island, and is
observed with religious punctuality by the natives of Old Kalabar,
on the occasion of need arising from its performance. Whenever
a scarcity of European trading ships exists, or is apprehended,
the Duketown authorities are accustomed to take an albino child
of their own race, and offer it up as a sacrifice, at Parrot Island,
to the God of the white man." Hutchinson's Western Africa,
page 112.
PRE-EMINENCE OF THE WHITE RACES. 227
CHAPTER XXXIII.
INCREASING PRE-EMINENCE AND PREDOMINANCE OF THE
WHITE RACES.
"
THE Caucasian race, to which we belong, is distinguished by
the beauty of the oval formed by his head, varying in complexion
and the color of the hair. To this variety, the most highly civil-
ized nations, and those which have generally held all others in
subjection, are indebted for their origin. . . . The race from
which we are descended has been called Caucasian, because tra-
dition and the filiation of nations seem to refer its origin to that
" Let us raise ourselves higher still, and pass into the province
of man himself. . . . The white race
distinguished above
is
them all the most perfect type of humanity the race best en-
; ;
dowed with the gifts of intelligence, and with the profound moral
and religious sentiment that brings man near to Him of whom he
isthe earthly image. To this race belong, without exception, all
the nations of high civilization, the truly historical nations ; tkis
still represents the highest degree of
progress attained by man-
kind. 1 '
Arnold Guyot. Earth and Man, page 228.
disturbs the softness of the lines that round it. The face is di-
vided into three equal parts by the line of the eyes and that of the
mouth. The eyes are lai-ge, well cut, not too near the nose nor
too far from it ;
their axis is placed on a single straight line, at
228 PRE-EMINENCE OF THE WHITE RACES.
right angles with the line of the nose. The facial angle is ninety
degrees. The stature is tall, lithe, well proportioned the shoul-
;
ders neither too broad nor too narrow. The length of the ex-
tended arms equal to the whole height of the body in one
is ;
word, all the proportions reveal the perfect harmony which is the
essence of beauty. Such is the type of the white race, the
Caucasian, as it has been agreed to call it, the most pure, the
most perfect type of humanity." Arnold Ouyot. Earth and
Man, page 255.
"The Negro or African, with his black skin, woolly hair, and
compressed, elongated skull the Mongolian of Eastern Asia and
;
America, with his olive complexion, broad and all but beardless
face, oblique eyes,and square skull and the Caucasian of West-
;
ern Asia and Europe, with his fair skin and face, full brow, and
rounded skull ; such, as every school-boy knows, are the three
great types or varieties into which naturalists have divided the in-
habitants of our planet. Accepting this rough initial conception
of a world peopled everywhere, more orless completely, with
these three varieties of human beings or their combinations, the
historian is able, in virtue of it, to announce one important fact at
the very outset, to wit, that, up to the present moment, the des-
tinies of the species appear to have been carried forward almost
" The Caucasian form of man combines, above the rest, strength
of limb with activity of motion, enabling it to endure the great-
est vicissitudes of temperature in all climates; to emigrate, colo-
nize, and multiply in them, with the sole exception of the positive
extremes. His longevity is more generally protracted, even in
the midst of the enervating habits of high civilization ; his solid
fibre gives a reasoned self-possession and daring in vicissitudes,
ed to the skies, descended into the deep, and mastered the powers
of lightning. By mechanical researches, the bearded man has as-
suaged human toil, multiplied the results of industry, and created
a velocity of locomotion superior to the flight of birds by his ;
more than three thousand years, he has been the principal pos-
sessor of all human knowledge and the asserter of fixed laws.
He has instituted all the great religious systems in the world, and
to his stock has been vouchsafed the glory and the conditions of
revelation. The Caucasian type alone continues in rapid devel-
opment, covering with nations every congenial latitude, and por-
tending at no distant era to bear rule in every region, if not by
physical superiority, at least by that dominion, which religion,
science, and enterprise confer." Hamilton Smith's Natural His-
tory of the Human Species, page 371.
occupied the lower Mississippi and the most northerly of the Can-
adas, and without any loss of their original vigor in either of those
widely separated latitudes. The descendants of that race, ex-
pelled from Acadia, suffered a dispersion equally wide, being
found in the Carolinas, on the Gulf of Mexico, and on the upper
St. John in the latitude of Quebec. If there are malarious re-'
gions at the South, on the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of
Mexico, they are of limited extent, and, as a whole, the white race
exhibits as much physical vigor at the South as at the North, and,
in the opinion of many observers, decidedly more." Weston's
Progress of Slavery, page 160.
world teach us that the po\ver of race is the one master and pos-
itive force, the operation of which can be calculated upon as a
' '
cause it is spacious in the possession of dirt; because, like Rus-
sia, it is vast, or even because, like France, it is rich and warlike.
Its real greatness, I believe, with a belief having the clearness of
conviction and the earnestness of faith, has its sole origin in the
by which the land was settled and reclaimed,
qualities of the race
and by which government and its society were framed."
its
." It is the strictly white races that are bearing onward the flam-
beau of civilization, as displayed in the Germanic families alone."
Josiah Clark Nott. Types of Mankind, page 405.
"
History, tradition, monuments, osteological remains, every
literary recordand scientific induction, all show that races have
occupied substantially the same zones or provinces from time im-
memorial. Since the discovery of the mariner's compass, mankind
have been more distui'bed in their primitive seats and, with the ;
ica are fading away before the exotic races of Europe. Those
groups of races heretofore comprehended under the generic term
Caucasian, have in all ages been the rulers and it requires no
;
sian ;
literature and romance come of the same stock ;
all the great
poets are of Caucasian origin Moses, Luther, Jesus Christ, Zo-
;
'
It has been said that whosoever would see the Eastern world
before it turns into a Western world must make his visit soon, be-
and in the Eastern world, I only see that you can hardly place a
finger on the map of the world and be an inch from an English
236 PRE-EMINENCE OF THE WHITE RACES.
yet It was not alone for their sakes that I was, and am, and always will be, hostile
to slavery. I believed, many years since, as I believe now, that there Is in slavery
itself, and more especially "in negro slavery, a moral and social guilt of no less
revolting magnitude than the political blunders which are also a part of Its base
offspring. I believed then, and I believed riglitly, I think, that the negroes ought
to be freed, and then colonized somewhere beyond the present limits of
speedily
the United .States. I do not believe, and never did believe, that the two races
the white and the black widely and irreconcilably different as they are in their
natures, ought ever to inhabit "the same_ country. Living in close association,
living together beneath the same roof, living in juxtaposition within the acknowl-
edged limits of any hamlet, village, town, or city, or even within the boundaries
of any farm or plantation, as they did live under the system of slavery, and as they
Btill live under the condition of freedom, is, as I solemnly believe (particularly as
it affects the whites), a gross shame, a shocking indecency, and a glaring crime.
I believe that the whole negro race is a weak and worthless race, an effete and
time-worn race, which, like the Indian race, is no longer fit, if ever fit for any
properly provided for, and then prudently and suitably let alone, Providence wilf
MMiii cut them off, root and branch, and thus happily rid the earth of at least the
bulk of the superannuated and inutile organisms which so unpropitiously encumber
it In the current epoch.
While one of the inevitable effects of enduring any manner of association or
relation between the two races is the partial elevation of the blacks, the other is
only the too positive and irremediable degradation of the whites. The influence
of the white on the black Is always for good to the black at the expense of the
white: the influence of the black on the white is always bad for the white; and
the white is again, and invariably, the victim. In anything and in everything
wherein the white people of the .South are worse than the people of the North, and
in whatever mental, moral, or material interest we of the .South are less advanced
than you of the North, the delinquencies or the deficiencies, as the case maybe, are
alone attributable to the profitless and pernicious presence of the negroes among us.
In quality of population, the great difference between the North ami the South
is simply this: while we here are cursed with the black imps of Africa, you there
are blessed with the white genii of Kurope. What 1 would do to bring the south
up to an honorable and ever-friendly equality with the North (and what must be
done sooner or later, or the object thus aimed at will never be accomplished), is to
prepare the way, on the one hand, for the egress of all our imps of darkness and
of death, and, on the other hand, to open wide the way for the ingress of your
superabundant genii of life and of light. I contend, then, that, in order to in'stire
the true safety and success of the South, in order to maintain, in perpetuity, the
integrity of our national Union, and in order to guarantee uninterrupted peace and
prosperity throughout the greater and better part of this vast continent, we must,
with as little delay as possible, colonize the negroes iu Mexico, or elsewhere out
of pur own country; or, a-> a last but temporary method of relief from their baneful
existence among ii, we must remove them all', much the same as we have hitherto
removed certain tribes of Indians, into one or more of the South-bordering States
or Territories of the United States.
The necessity for the removal and colonization of the negroes was as plain to me
ten years ago as it is to-day but I foresaw then, and I see now, that there could
;
be no general nor effectual demand raised for the displacement of the blacks on
the one hand, and for the filling up of the South by white people from the North
and from Kurope on the other, until after slavery, the great nursery and stronghold
of negroes, should first be abolished. Kqually did I foresee then, and I perceive
now, that, in a state of freedom and self-dependence, one of two fatal dilemmas
would certainly befall the negro; but neither of which dilemmas was ever likely
to befall him so long as he had the benefit of guides and protectors in the persons
of a few unfortunate white men, his masters, who, however, as is well known,
guided and protected him as an easy and questionable method of procuring their
own bread and butter; and this, too, though not always wilfully, to the serious, if
not irreparable, detriment of the great majority of their own white fellow-citizens.
To me it was plain then, and it is plain now, that if the negro, in a condition of
political equality, is left here, he will, from the fated and complicated causes of
neglect and hostility on the part of the whites, gradually die out and disappear;
but this not without entailing on the whites a multiplicity of long-lasting injuries
and calamities meanwhile. If colonized, whether within or without the United
States, and after a fair but final amount of advice and assistance, put entirely upon
bis own resources, as, indeed, it is but right and proper taut he should have been
APPENDIX. 239
put long ago, his doom, it is also plain, would be equally inevitable : itwould only
be, as I conscientiously believe, another use of the whites as instruments to
modify, or to seemingly modify, the indestructible plan of Providence for extermi-
nating the negro.
I admit, and, at the same time, insist upon it, that men, everywhere and at all
times, should be exceedingly careful how they attempt to interpret any will or
purpose of Heaven. Further, 1 will say that I do not believe that any mere man,
like any one of you, or like myself, ever did, or ever will, truly interpret or explain
the exact purpose of God in reference to anything whatsoever, except only and
" New York
possibly through conjecture. It is true, that in years gone by the
Tribune" and several other gazettes of less ability and weight, seriously proclaimed
me a prophet; but I deny the soft impeachment, and respectfully protest against
that sort of infringement and libel on the preeminent prerogatives of the ancient
Hebrews. The exercise of common sense is the only prophecy with which I have
ever yet been gifted ; and beyond that, in matters of seership, I never expect to be
gifted. In this respect, any and every other rational white man may be, and ought
to be, equally gifted; if not so gifted, it is because he is a mere idler; and if so, he
is, for that reason, highly reprehensible for not improving and disciplining the
mind of whatever bent or capacity which a mighty and merciful God has been
pleased to create within him. If, then, we may seek to comprehend and interpret
the will of God touching any one or more of the several races of mankind, I hesi-
tate not to say that, in my humble judgment, the efforts which the Radical and
other blind and fanatical friends of the negro are now making for his retention
and equality among us are directly in conflict with the Divino purpose, and are,
therefore, fragrantly wrong and impiously wicked. To what end, <>r for what pur-
pose, was the great Columbus and nia white-faced and Heaven-guided successors
in maritime discovery
safely
wafted to this western world but to redeem it from
the fruitless occupancy and from the wild and weird desecration of the savage
Indian? Why was Moses and his compatriots and kinsman, in their bloody ag-
gressions against the Canaanites, not only permitted, but encouraged, and com-
manded, to leave alive none that breatheth," if it were not that Jehovah had
'
ceased to have a use for those who had already accomplished the ends for which
they had been created ? If we see, or if we think we see, a purpose on the part ot
the" Deity to cut off all the Canaanites ot old, on the one hand, and all the Indian
tribes of the three great Americas and their adjacent islands of modern times, on
the other, it is, I contend, quite as easy for us to perceive His desire and purpose
to use us, whether we be willing or not, as his swift avengers against the negroes,
both in America and in Africa, first here and then there; for even before we get
America filled up with the white races, we shall need Africa as a new continent
for the enterprise and habitation of the redundant populations of Europe and of
other portions of tlie white world and then the negroes, and all the other black
;
hardships, denied them now by those wanton and reckless demagogues who con-
stitute a
usurpatory and tyrannical majority of the present Congress.
Let me explain : As is well known, whi'le slavery existed in the South there
was no respectability of labor. Every sort of actual'work with the hands, whether
upon one's owu account or in the way of help or assistance to others, was. always
looked upon as menial and degrading. Negroes, as slaves and as servants, were
employed everywhere, not only out of doors, but also within doors. Indecent,
disgraceful, an'd criminal as it was in reality, this universal rule or custom of
"having negroes around" was both fashionable and aristocratic. There were
never any vacancies or situations for poor white people; and yet the number of
these, in the South generally, was always much greater than the number of the ne-
groes. Just look at it! Just think of itl The mass of the white population of the
South absolutely debarred from the pecuniary profits and other advantages of em-
ployment, and forced
into the distant purlieus of poverty and ignorance I The base-
Dorn and incapable blacks, by the force of a vulgar public opinion, placed above the
meritorious whites ! Yet it was not at all because of any inherent power or good
quality in the negroes that the poor whites were thus crowded away from the
many desirable employments and places to which they alone should have been
heartily welcomed. The fault of the thing, up to the close of the war, is traceable
directly to the slaveholders themselves, who. in the short-sighted and vicious pol-
icy which they pursued, made every other interest in the country, both great and
small, subordinate and subservient to the negroes and negro slavery. !-ince the
war, the blame, in a grossly aggravated and unexpected form, rest's exclusively
with the Radical party. The slaveholders are now beginning to see and lament
the folly and blindness and bigotry of their unseemly devotion to the worthless
negroes. For the sake of the country, let us_ sincerely hope and pray that the Kndicals
may soon give evidence of similar perception, and aNo of true sorrow for their very
numerous, very black, and very grievous political sins. Never did Brahmins, Ma-
hommedans, or Christians, sacrifice their country, their property, their friends, their
family, or themselves, with more fidelity to their God, than the slaveholders here
have sacrificed everything which they held dear on earth, in order to preserve alive
and unscathed the negro, the very blackest and basest wretch that ever lived.
Was such black and abominable idol ever so besottedly worshipped before ? Them-
selves, their sons, their nearand distant relatives, their neighbors, and their coun-
trymen, all of their own kith and kin and color, the slaveholders cheerfully gave
to the battle and to death; but the negro, the meanest and most degraded of man-
kind, was kept alive, and is still among us, a nuisance, a leper, and a plague.
Time and space both fail here of a suitable opportunity for entering into all the
sad and shocking minutiae of the cruelly unjust proscription of the .Southern poor
whites, who, by the common exigencies of their nature, and as the mere ont-kirt
tenants of the rich landed proprietors, were compelled to seek such an incidental
and uncertain livelihood as they could procure by hunting and fishing, and by such
occasional jobs, here and there, as they could beg, too often only as a sort of spec-
ial favor from one or more of their wealthier and better-hearted neighbors. Kven
a slight knowledge of the facts, however, and upon these facts a little sagacious
reflection will enable you to perceive at once the numerous opportunities, both for
education and for physical comforts, which were, a> a matter of course, given to
the negroes, but which, at the same time, and equally as a matter of course, were
withheld from the whites. For nearly two hundred and fifty years, the negroes
here, as waiters in hotels, and in the families of the most learned and refined, as
barbers and as body-servants to professional men, pleasure-seekers and others,
have had the constant benefit of hearing the intelligent conversation of their mas-
ters and mistresses, and also of listening to the interesting and instructive stories
of well-informed visitors and cosmopolitan strangers. Retained in great numbers
in the cities and towns (just where not one of them ought ever to have been, and
just where not one of them ought ever to be\ they always had free and undisputed
admission to the public meetings in the court-houses and in the town halls, and
also to the religious meetings held in the churches and elsewhere. As a cla-s, they
alone, of all the poor people in the South, had access, at all times, in the families
of the rich and refined, to books, magazines, and newspapers. On the other hand,
the poor whites, treated as outcasts, merely because they did not own slaves, en-
joyed none of the opportunities which were thus so easily within the reach of the
negroes, whether for the enlargement and cultivation of the mind, or for the
health and comfort of the body; and, what is worse, ay, what, indeed, is very
much worse, the condition of things in this respect is still unchanged. Hordes
of hungry, shiftless, and worthless blacks, who, relying, as of old, on their impor-
tunate and resistless art of begging, to supply themselves, among other tilings,
with all the threadbare and bad-fitting garments of their white superiors. nre
everywhere offering their services for the merest nominal wages and the old mas-
;
APPENDIX. 241
ters and employers, accustomed only to such wretched and barbarous assistance
as can be got from negro slaves and negro servants, are yet under the spell of
sable witch and sable wizard, and, with rare exceptions, have as yet learned lit-
tle or nothing of either the advantage or the duty, the decency or the respectabil-
ity, of employing and having about them none but white persons. In this way the
negro, a pesterer of detestable character and color, continues to be banefully in-
terposed between the two great white elements in the South, where, like e a slug-
gish, yet meandering woodworm, he is all the while gnawing deeper and d deeper
into the vitals of first one side and then the other. Of the two classes of f whites
who are thus incessantly preyed upon and despoiled by the blacks, the poorer
whites are invariably the greater victims ; for against these are arrayed the low
prejudice and the hostile influences of not only all the negroes, but (shameful and
shocking to relate) of many of the wealthier whites also. This is what comes of
that unnatural and execrable bond of sympathy and selfishness which has so long
existed, and which still exists, between the negro owners, or those who were but
lately so, and the negroes themselves ; and now, to this double and distressing op-
position, against which the poor whites of the South have for so long a time barely
been able to offer even a feeble resistance, is added a third power, far more crafty,
and far more potent for mischief than either of the others. This third power
whether it seems to be so or not, or whether it was intended to be so or not, it is
so, nevertheless this third power, in alliance with the negroes and the ex-slave-
holders, to utterly crush out and ruin forever the poor whites of the South, is the
whole Radical party, but more especially that very unscrupulous and desperate
embodiment of it now justly described and detested as the rump Congress. Un-
der the wrongfully discriminating, negro-favoring enactments of this unconstitu-
tional and unprincipled Congress, not only are white emigrants from the North
and from Europe now coming hither in less numbers than they came under the old
condition of things, but many of the whites who are already here are every day be-
coming more andmore anxious to abandon their homes and emigrate to distant
and foreign lands, rather than remain the victims of that terrible thraldom of
negro supremacy, which a most mean and malignant assemblage of heartless Rad-
icals are now fastening upon them.
Almost every day, for several months past, ever since I last returned to the
State, have I seen whole families, and sometimes two or three together, leaving
North Carolina, some going in the direction of Illinois, some travelling toward
Indiana,, and others, of the more able and venturesome sort,, bound for Brazil and
,
elsewhere, far beyond the utmost limits of their own native soil. While thus,
under the oppressive and tyrannical operations of Radical military despotisms, our
own native white people are robbed of their natural freedom, and forced to flee to
foreign lands, European emigrants and emigrants from the North are restrained
almost entirely from coming to the South I And thus swiftly and infamously are
the narrow-minded and revengeful Radicals converting all the States of the South
into one vast Hayti, or Jamaica, or Mexico, driving from the country the white
people, who are, whether here or elsewhere, the only worthy and saving elements
of population, and surrendering it completely to the pollution, devastation, and
ruin of stupid and beast-like hordes of black barbarians.
Of the extreme poverty and distress of many of the poor whites who are now
emigrating from the State, and of a still larger number who, rather than submit
to the further clnnger and disgrace of Radical-negro and negro-Radical domination,
are anxious to leave, but are destitute even of the scanty means necessary to take
them away, I have scarcely the heart to speak. To enter adequately into details
or particulars upon this subject in a mere newspaper article, is quite out of the
question, and so I will only remark here, in a general way, but with all the emphasis
of earnestness and truth, that I do not believe any people in any part of America
were ever subjected to such unjust and oppressive straits, such miserable and
wretched shifts, as the poorer classes of the white people of North Carolina, and of
the South generally, are now having to struggle against ; and all this mainly in con-
sequence of the blundering and unconstitutional enactments, the unstatesmanlike
and infamous legislation of that oligarchy of sectional demagogues known as the
rump Congress.
Within the last few weeks especially, many white families have I seen leaving
the State, all on foot, and barefooted at that, apparently possessed of no clothing,
except the two or three soiled and tattered garments which they were wearing at
the time, and carrying in a small bundle on their backs every article of property,
of whatever nature or kind, of which they could claim the ownership. One fam-
ily of eight persons, whom I met on the road, particularly attracted my attention;
and my heart, from an involuntary feeling of commiseration, almost bled when
I became a witness of their dire destitution and wretchedness. This family was
composed of the father, mother, grandmother, and five children, the eldest" child
21
242 APPENDIX.
being not more than twelve years of age. Except the youngest child, which was
in its mother's arms, all were travelling on foot, and all were barefooted, with the
single exception of the father, who had on very old and rudely patched brogans.
A single outer dress, of the commonest and cheapest stuff', and that much worn,
and by no means clean, with a dingy-looking sun-bonnet, appeared to be the only
article of clothing of which any one of the females was possessed. The head of
the family had no coat; and as for the boys, uncombed, ragged, and ignorant, they
"
had, indeed, in a truly serious and melancholy sense, almost literally nothing to
wear." Coarse straw hats, common shirts, and very common pantaloons, all
badly worn, were the only things they had as shields from the weather; and the*e
shabby vestments seemed to constitute the sum total of their personal effects. In
a email cotton-cloth wallet, which was swung across the shoulders of the father,
and which he evidently carried without its causing him any particular burden or
inconvenience, were deposited the only movables, the only goods mid chattels,
the only household gods of this poor, this uneducated, this politically oppressed
and unfortunate family. Nor is this an exaggerated picture. Were it but a soli-
tary case, or but one of few, the condition of things would not be so bad but, ;
sud to reflect, it is only one of many, and the number is increasing. Wliether
fleeing from oppression (this time not so much the oppression by ex-slaveholders,
as the oppression by Radicals and negroes), or whether remaining at home under
the galling yoke of tyranny, the whole South is now full of just such victims as
the family just mentioned. And these victims, for the most part, as poor as poor
can be, and as ignorant and miserable as possible, are principally ot the former
class of poor whites, for the utter crushing out and destruction or whom there is
now in force a most foul and formidable triple alliance of Radicals, ex-slave-
holders, and negroes; but, as already intimated, the least harm that is felt from
this alliance cornea from the ex-slaveholders, who, for the first time in their lives,
are only now beginning to accept in practice the correctness of their ancient and
all-the-while preaching, that white people are better than negroes. In behnlf of
these long and sorely oppressed poor whites, and for the means not merely to
enable them to withstand, but eventually to overcome, the threefold and iniquitous
opposition thus arrayed against them, I, here and now, with all due deference and
respect, appeal to God and to the good people of the North.
Scarcely anywhere can one travel in the South, at the present time, without
meeting, on every hand, especially among the poor whites, and there are few
now who are not poor, numerous cases of actual want, sickness, suffering, and
despair; and were it not that I fear to tax too severely your patience, I should
feel it niy duty to give a somewhat full and minute account of several of them.
As it is, however, 1 will only advert to two or three cases in addition to the one
already mentioned. In Marion, the county seat of McDowell county, in this .State,
adjoining the county in which I am now writing, and where I now reside.it was
ascertained a short while since that unless the pressing necessities of a large
number of the poor white people could soon be relieved, there was great danger
that many of them, during the ensuing winter, would sutler intensely, if not die
outright, of cold and hunger. In their behalf, an appeal was made to a few
wealthy gentlemen of Baltimore, who nobly responded in the form of a liberal
contribution of money. There were and are in that county, as, indeed, in every
other county, district, and parish throughout the South, a great many poor widows
and orphans, whose husbands and fathers were conscripted and killed during the
late war, and who now, without lands, without houses, except here and there a
dilapidated log-cabin, and without employment, are in a manner naked, re-
eourceless, and starved. In view of the wretchedly ill-clad condition of these
poor widows and orphans, it was thought best to spend the money, which, as
already explained, had been generously contributed in Baltimore, for cotton
thread, such as is used for the weaving of plain cloth, and to distribute a bunch of
that, so far as it would go, to each fatherless family. Mr. Alfred Krwin, a kind-
hearted and very estimable citizen of that county, a lawyer by profession, was ap-
to make the distribution. As soon as it became known that Mr. Krwin
pointed
had received this thread, to be given awav at his discretion to the persons indi-
cated, his office was literally besieged, until very soon there was not a single bunch
left, and then it was truly touching to witness the profound disappointment and
grief, amounting almost to despair, of the numerous careworn and indigent
mothers who were still unprovided for, some of whom had come twelve or fifteen
miles over the rough mountain roads, on foot, barefooted, and with scarcely
clothes enough upon themselves to cover, in the usual way, their own persons.
The sight, I say.tne sight of these very poor widowed mothers having to return
home empty-handed, but heavy-hearted, as I myself saw many of them returning,
to rickety, cold, comfortless log cabins, in a manner destitute not only of furni-
ture and bedding, but also of almost every other thing, except a troop of half*
APPENDIX. 243
starved, half-clad, and helpless children, was, Indeed, a spectacle too sorrowful to
behold with anv ordinary emotion.
During the earl} part of last month I was in Columbia, South Carolina. There
also did I see agaih, as I had frequently seen before, how poor white persons are
treated as the inferiors of negroes, and how to the latter are given places of in-door
ease and profit, which should in all cases, without exception, be given only to tho
former. At different times, while walking about the city (or rather the ruins of a
city, for, as is well known, it was almost entirely destroyed by fire during the
brief occupation of Sherman's army, a piece of warfare about as brave and
defensible as that of Semmes, who burned unarmed merchant ships at sea),
several white women and girls, who were so emaciated by a long and distressful
period of hunger, little short of actual starvation, that some of them were re-
duced to mere skin and bone, met me in the street, and, with tears and laments,
besought me for a little money to buy bread I Of one of them, who was evidently
but an indifferent shadow of her former self, I asked a few questions. She was
but fifteen years of age. Her father was forced into the war, and was killed. The
house in which she and her mother lived, and everything in it, was burned to
ashes during the great conflagration. Almost immediately afterward her mother,
yielding to excess of grief and despondency, became very sick, and soon died in a
paroxysm of despair and delirium; and she, the daughter, an only child, was left
In the world without means, without friends, and without employment. My heart
sickened under the plaintiveness, the childlike simplicity, and the obvious truth-
fulness of her statement; and, regretting that I had not the ability to place in her
attenuated and leather-like hands dollars instead of dimes, I returned to the
Mckerson House, where I had stopped, and there I looked hither and thither
through hall, parlor, dining-room, side apartments, ami elsewhere, to see whether
it was possible for me to obtain a glimpse of even one white servant, old or young,
male or female; but I looked in vain. Again I passed into the street, and from
one street into another, examining and ascertaining, as far I could perceive,
whether white servants were employed in or about any of the private houses but, ;
alas not one could be seen. Yet, on the right hand and on the left, as stumbling-
I
blocks in front, and as drones and sluggards behind, I saw multitudes of sleek,
stupid, foul-smelling, filthy, greasy, and grinning negroes, who, as the curse-inflict-
ing pets, alike of infatuated and folly-governed ex-slaveholders and Radicals,
were lazily occupying places which would have been infinitely better occupied by
whites, and which, by the great laws that indicate the common justice and decency
of things, should have been occupied by whites alone.
As is well known to many intelligent and worthy persons all over the country,
this is not the first time that I have made an appeal for justice for the poor and
oppressed whites of the South. Ten years ago, I made a similar appeal in my
" The
anti-slavery and anti-negro book, entitled Impending Crisis of the South."
Four months ago I reiterated that appeal in my anti-negro and anti-slavery book,
entitled " Nojoque." And yet there are certain scribblers and babblers of non-
sense, mere penny-a-liners, who criticise books without reading them, who
feign obliviousness of these facts, and who affect to find disagreements and antag-
onisms between the two publications here named. I complain of this charge
simply and solely because it is not true. In such perfect accord, upon all points,
are " The Impending Crisis of the South" and " Xojoque," that, but for the dif-
ference in time of writing and printing, the two books might have been fitly bound
together, in which case the contents of both would have lormed but a single work,
two volumes in one, the whole, as a whole, and in all its parts, constituting a
carefully constructed engine of literary warfare against negroes and negro slavery.
The prominent and important fact that " The Impending Crisis of the fcouth " was
written in the interest of the white people of the Southern States, and was an
appeal to the whites alone, and not an appeal to the negroes, to the extent of any
page, paragraph, sentence, line, or word, was distinctly admitted, and elaborately
dwelt upon and denounced by many of the pro-slavery politicians who, though in
the wrong, were noted for their sagacity and eloquence immediately before the
war; such politicians, for instance, as Pryor of Virginia, Hindman of Arkansas,
and Clark of Missouri. The fact was also freely admitted, and repeatedly in-
veighed against with great severity by such negro-loving abolitionists (but other-
wise able and excellent men) as George B. Cheever, Willuim Goodell, and Wen-
dell Phillips. Some years ago it was the boast of certain distinguished and patri-
otic Republicans, Republicans who have since, Lucifer-like, fallen from the
white heights of Republicanism into the black depths of Radicalism, tha_t
no
honest-minded man could calmly and attentively peruse my " Impending Crisis of
"
the South without learning to abhor Were not that these same
slavery. it men,
having ceased to be Republicans, have taken upon themselves the despicable
character of Radicals, they, even, they themselves, would readily perceive and
244 APPENDIX.
acknowledge that every sane person who familiarizes himself with the contents
of " Nojoque " must, by the irresistible force of the facts and logical inferences
therein recorded, learn to love white people us so infinitely the superiors of negroes
as to burn with a deep and unquenchable desire to save the former from any and
all manner of contamination by the latter; and, therefore, to demand, with un-
abating energy and firmness, as affecting the two races, an absolute, total, and
eternal separation.
Because of its gross excesses, its shortcomings, and its corruptions, the first
and most important tiling necessary to be done, iu order to remedy existing evils,
is to utterly break down and destroy the whole Radical party, a party which, in its
monstrous affiliation with negroes, is bringing utter abjectness and ruin upon at
least ten States of the Union, and disgracing and crippling all the others. Here,
in the .Southern States, the Radical influence, which is just as black and bad as it
can be, coupled, not in name, but in reality, with the old slaveholdiug influence,
keeps the negro unnaturally and dissentiously interlarded between the two great
while elements of the South, thus preventing here, among the eight millions of
people who alone are good for anything, that unity of sentiment and purpose, and
that harmony of plan and action, without which it is impossible tor us ever to
attain anything like permanent peace, prosperity, or greatness. Indeed, under
the actual military despotisms wnich an unrepublican and malignant Radical
Congress have foisted upon us, and under the atrocious Radical threats of un-
limited confiscation and perpetual disfranchisement, leading us to fear that a still
more oppressive and galling yoke is heid in reserve for us, there is already an
almost total suspension of all public and private works; men have no heart to do
anything, their nopes and their energies hare been crushed; their dwellings,
their out-houses, and their fences arc, in most cases, in a state ot dilapidation:
their institutions of learning, their churches, and their public buildings of all
kinds such as were not actually burned to ashes during the war, having been
greatly misused and abused are going to decay; and in many places, where at
least ordinary instructors and schools are still to be found, the children, if not of
necessity required to remain at home and work, are too frequently so destitute
of clothing that their parents are ashamed to let them go peyond the narrow
limits of their own mournfully foreboding and gloomy observation. Many of the
public roads and bridges, and not a few of the fords and ferry-boats, have been so
long out of repair that they have become absolutely dangerous ; and, unless, iu the
good Providence of God, the desolating and destructive rule of Radicalism can
soon be checked and averted, those who travel here extensively, whether by
Bteam-power or by horse-power, will do so at the Imminent peril of their lives.
Especially among the negroes here crime and lawlessness of every sort are now
far more rife than ever before ; while, in many cases, under the vicious protection
afforded them by the Radical negro bureau, before whose Dogberry agents the
presence and the testimony of as good white men as ever lived are but too often
treated with contempt, they (the delinquent negroes) are never punished at all ;
or, if punished, punished only in the mildest possible manner. I have known in-
Ktances where white men, coming to a knowledge of crimes committed by negroes,
those very whites themselves being the victims, would endure the wrong, and
pass the whole matter by in silence, and without action, rather than subject them-
selves to the insult, expense, and loss of time which they well knew they would
be but too likely to incur by making complaint, whether at the negro bureau, or
at anyone of those other bureaus of military despotism, which have been so unne-
cessarily and so wickedly inflicted upon us by the Radical Congress. Everywhere
throughout the South, the increasing demoralization of the negroes is now,
indeed, sadly seen and sadly felt. Nor would it be an easy matter to make up a
full and complete indictment against them of all their'high crimes and misde-
meanors. In every district or community of a considerable size, on the right hand
and on the left, they are almost constantly committing brutal murder and high-
way robbery ; breaking into dwellings and warehouses ; depredating on orchards,
fields of grain, and granaries; appropriating to their own use other people's cattle,
pigs,
and poultry; stealing everything that they can lay their hands upon; outrag-
ing pure and innocent white girls; and not unfrequently, in a spirit of the most
savage wantonness and revenge, setting on fire and utterly destroying the houses
and other property of their white neighbors. Terrorism reigns supreme among
the white females of every family, and sleep is banished.
Xot far from here, I was, a few weeks ago, in a small town, where there were
just eight stores, every one of which had, at different times, been broken into and
robbed. Either at the actual time respectively of each robbery, or afterward, it
was fully ascertained and proven, that six of these stores had been forcibly and
feloniously entered by negroes, and the other two by persons unknown. All of
them bad been, entered since the establishment of the Radical negro bureau.
APPENDIX. 245
Prior to that time, no store in that town had ever "been entered by burglars.
These facts, well considered, must lead to the most solemn and profound convic-
tion, in the breast of every right-thinking man, that the negroes, strongly fortified
in the morbid and misplaced sympathy of the Radicals, are feeling themselves at
comparative liberty to commit, with impunity, every species of outrage and
crime.
Broken-hearted over the disastrous realities of the present, and dimly peering
into the dark and uncertain future, all the white people here, of whatever condi-
tion in life, are dejected and sorrowful to an extent that I never before witnessed.
Sometimes it has seemed to me that I could discern something holy, something
sncred, in the deep and troubled sadness of those about me; as if, indeed, God, in
his great mercy, had come to dwell in their hearts, and to protect them from
further outrage. I would that this were so. Among men whose hearts are not
entirely callous to every consideration of justice and humanity, there should
always prevail a sentiment keenly alive to the suggestion, that there should be
both a measure and a limitation of punishment. Yet, strange to say, more
strange to say of white men. and still more strange to say of white men in this
nineteenth century, the Radicals, as represented in the Radical Congress, seem to
be actuated by no such sentiment as this. For the crimes which were committed
by only a few dozen actual traitors (the more prominent and guilty of whom
ought, in my opinion, to have been hanged more than two years ago), they are
inflicting all manner of severe penalties and punishments on eight millions of
people I
They complain, and justly, of the cruel treatment and death of spine
thousands of Union soldiers in Libby Prison, at Salisbury, and at Andersonville;
but, by laws more tyrannical and barbarous than were ever before enacted by any
civilized legislature, they are deliberately crushing out the spirit and the lite of
millions of innocent men, women, and children In the vain effort to exculpate
I
themselves, they vauntingly proclaim to the world that their measures of military
reconstruction were enacted in great part, if not principally, for the protection
and for the benefit of Union men in the South. I tell them that the true Union
men of the South (the white Union men, and except these there were none, and
are none worthy of the name) detest, with a detestation unutterable; the entire
batch of their disgraceful and ruinous military measures of reconstruction. With
few exceptions, the white Union men of the South feel that they have been most
foully and shamefully betrayed and dishonored and we
; reject, with immeasurable
scorn and indignation, the imputation that we have any sympathies or purposes
in common with base-minded and degenerate partisans, w'ho, like the Radicals,
are abandoned to every high principle of honor and right reason. We were, and
are still, Republicans; not black Republicans, but white Republicans. Radicals
we never were, nor can we be. It is, then, the Republican party, in the persona
of factious and fanatical multitudes of Radical demagogues, that has left us, and
not we who have left the Republican party. And I here tell these Radicals, and I
tell them with emphasis and distinctness, not as a threat, but as a warning, that,
in any future conflict of arms (which, however, may God and good men avert I) be-
tween the friends and enemies of the Constitution, and of the Government of the
United States as constitutionally organized, the better class of Union white men
of the South would be precisely where they were before, they would be with the
right, but not with the Radicals.
But why do I speak of a warlike contingency of this sort as being now even
within the bounds of possibility ? I will tell you. That the whole country, North
and South, East and West, is not now in a state of general good order, peace and
prosperity, is alone due to the unwise and unjust legislation of the Radical Con-
gress. A
large majority of that Congress are now evincing, or have but recently
evinced, a disposition to prosecute, even to still greater lengths, if possible, their
former schemes of revenge, despotism, and ruin. As a mere party measure, rank
with wantonness and usurpation, they now threaten to impeach and remove a
President who, though at times somewhat stubborn and imprudent, has always
been rigidly faithful in the performance of his constitutional duties, inflexibly
honest, thoroughly patriotic, and eminently solicitous to promote, in all proper
ways, the public good. An intelligent and distinguished merchant of Boston,
with whom, on a certain occasion, I dined in New York, a few months ago,
remarked to me, that in his opinion the present or a future Bancroft, in detailing
to posterity the true history of the administration of Andrew Johnson, would
find in him the best president, Abraham Lincoln alone excepted, that we have
had in America, thus far, since the days of John Quincy Adams. That was the
honest opinion of a highly-educated, high-minded, and most worthy merchant
of the city of Boston. Let the whole crowd of noisy radicals, who, not unlike a
pack of poodles snarling and snapping at the heels ot an elephant, are incessantly
annoying and defaming one who is, in every good quality, vastly the superior of
21*
246 APPENDIX.
themselves, reflect whether the positive opinion thus expressed was not tolerably
well founded. Another gentleman (and this brings me to the very gist of what {
wish to say in reference to future lighting, and to beg that the radicals will give no
occasion for it), a New Yorker, who occupies an important judicial position, declared
to me, in June last, that in case of the attempt of the Radical Congress to remove
the President in any manner, or for any cause not explicitly prescribed in the
Constitution, mind you, he did not even mention the name of Andrew Johnson,
he only spoke of "the President," he, for one, would take up arms to resist
the usurpation, and he believed the people would generally do the same thing.
He further remarked that in such an event the war would be one merely for the
preservation of republican and democratic institutions, and that it would pre-
vail only at the North, unless the South, by her own volition, should come to
be a party to it. Now, it may be that there are certain men in the South
who would be more or less rejoiced at the outbreak of a war of that sort, but if
so, I most sincerely hope and trust that they may never be gratified nor will they
;
be, unless it be through the folly and the crime of the Kadical party. The white
Union men of the South are not only Southerners, they are also Americans, and
they wish well to the whole country indeed, so extensive are their good will
;
and aspirations in this regard, that they hope the day will soon come, or come
some time, when the entire continent of North America, from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, and from Behring's Straits to the Isthmus of Darien, shall be found
to be too small to represent in full on the maps the peaceful, prosperous, and
progressive superficies and boundaries of our national domain. We believe that
Andrew Johnson has made, and is still making, in the person of himself, a truly
ableand patriotic President of these United States and we believe further, without
;
advocating his election or re-election, that he would make, for the ensuing Presi-
dential term, a better President than any one of the gentlemen whose names the
Radicals have yet mentioned in connection with that high office; and this simply
because they have not mentioned the names of such clear-sighted and worthy
Republican statesmen as Seward, Adams, Fessenden, Sherman, McCulloch, Doo-
little, Browning, Welles, Raymond, and Randall; nor the names of any of those
tried and trusty Democratic statesmen to whom, in magnanimous and praise-
worthy coalition with the Republicans, we may yet have to look for the safe pilot-
ing of the ship of State over the many rough shoals and breakers among which
the Radicals have so negligently and so culpably allowed her to drift.
We, the white Union men of the South, and all the white men here, two or
three dozen arch-traitors exccpted, would soon become firm and faithful friends
of the Union, if they were only afforded a just and reasonable opportunity to be-
come so, are very desirous that all the Southern States shall at once be prudently
and properly rehabilitated; we want them to resume, without delay, their right-
ful status in the nation; we want them acknowledged and treated, in all re-
spects, as free and equal States, with enlightened and republican constitutions of
government, similar to those of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio; we want
them to retain, in the amplest possible sense, both the semblance and the reality
of white States, and so avoid the utter disgrace and worthlexsness of becoming
black States; and we insist upon it, that the infamous dogmas and teachings of
the Radicals, who are so pertinaciously striving to reduce the white races of our
country to the low level of negrohood, ought to be everywhere refused and rejected
with the utmost disdain. We insist upon it, that the abolition of slavery among
us ought to leave the negro occupying in the South precisely the same status that
the abolition of slavery among you left him occupying in the North. We insist
upon it, that, because of his natural inferiority, his despicable characteristics, his
gross stupidity, and his brutishness, he ought not to be allowed either to vote or
to hold office, nor to fill or perform any other high function which appertains, and,
of right, should always appertain exclusively, to the worthy and well-qualified
white citizens of our country. [Speaking here only for myself, as an individual, I
may say, with absolute sincerity and truth, that however much others may itch for
office, t'liere is no position of honor, trust, or profit, within the gift of any number
of the American people, or any number of any other people, that I would accept,
unless it came to me through white votes alone. And while this is strictly true, It
is very certain, also, that, however unregenerate I may be in other
respects, and
it would seem that, according to the opinion of some, I am a rather sinful sort of
man, yet I feel happy in the perfect assurance that I shall never go down to the
grave nor elsewhere, with the black crime resting upon my soul of having, in any
contingency, or under any possible or conceivable circumstances, ever voted for a
negro.] We insist upon it that the enfranchisement of the negroes,
and the dis-
franchisement of the whites, whereby the supremacy of the negroes has already
been established, or is about to be established in almost every Southern State, is a
consummate outrage, an unmitigated despotism, au unparalleled infamy, and an
APPENDIX. 247
atrocious crime. We insist upon it that our Federal government and our State
governments are, as they ought to be, republican in form, and that the military
authorities ought, at all times, except only in eases of actual war, in the future as
in the past, to be held subordinate to the civil authorities. We further insist upon
it, that the whole drift of radical legislation, for the last eighteen months and more,
lias been, and still is, unstatesmanlike, unrepublican, vindictive, and despotic,
perilous to all the principles of enlightened self-government, and alarmingly de-
grading and inimical to the white civilization and progress of the entire New
World:
It is absurd and useless for the Radicals, while tacitly admitting the black and
baneful excesses of their legislation, to tell us, in the pitiful attempt to excuse
their own gross ignorance and folly, that the numerical preponderance of the
whites in the South will save them from the corrupting and demoralizing influ-
ences of the negroes. As well might they tell us that a pound, or a less quantity,
of strychnine would do no harm in a barrel of flour; that an ounce of arsenic would
accomplish no mischief in a peck of meal that a phial of prussic acid could effect
;
no injury in a pitcher of water; or that one idiot, feverish and frantic with conta-
gion, might not communicate the effluvium of fatal infection to a score or more of
sane men. We insist upon it that it is pre-eminently our duty to be just and kind
to our own race, and that the poor and distressed of the white race are those who,
here, there, and everywhere, have the highest claims upon us, whether for ser-
vice, for food, for clothing, for education, or for whatever other thing; and also,
that if, in being but just to our own race, the negroes or others are the sufferers,
that, under the inscrutable purposes of Providence, is simply their misfortune, and
should always be so considered. Further, and finally, we insist upon it, that the
good results which the loyal and intelligent masses of the country had a right to
expect would soon follow the abolition of slavery and the suppression of the re-
bellion, shall neither be defeated nor indefinitely delayed and we protest that the
;
disingenuousness and treachery of the Radicals since the war, seriously threaten
to neutralize all the wise and patriotic labors which the Republicans so heroically
and so gloriously performed both before and during the war. We ask for the
immediate repeal of all military laws which are antagonistic to the spirit and form
of republican government, and, especially, for the speedy repeal of all such politi-
cal and mercenary monstrosities as the negro bureau bill. We also ask that the
expenses of the army and navy may be reduced at least one-half, and that the
burdens of taxation, which now weigh so heavily upon white people, may at once
be lightened.
With an eye and a purpose to these ends, we ask that every Radical Senator and
Representative in Congress, and every other Radical officer in the land, whether
national, State, county, or municipal, who is, or has been, an aider and abettor of
that usurpatory and tyrannical oligarchy, euphemized as the American Congress,
shall, one and all, at the very next elections in which their names may be brought
before the people, be wholly and summarily withdrawn from official life, and that
new and better men men possessed of good common-sense men controlled
by sentiments of justice for white people, no less than by sentiments of justice for
black people men sufficiently free from sectional bias men of enlarged and
statesmanlike views shall be ejected in their stead. Let this be done, and all
will be well. Let it be made manifest, and let it be proclaimed abroad, throughout
the entire length and breadth of the land, that what the short-sighted and fanati-
cal Radicals are aiming at as a mere possible good to four millions of blacks, is
a positive disservice and evil to eight millions of whites. We want, and we will
have, no re-estoblishment of slavery. It is safe to say that there are not to-day, in
the whole State of North Carolina, two hundred men, of good standing or influ-
ence, who would, if they could, have slavery re-established. Indeed, I doubt
whether there are five thousand white men, in all the South, who would now, or
at any future time, be so unwise, so rash, and so reckless, as to undo the acts of
emancipation, even if they had the power. The only persons here who, in any
considerable number, would be willing to incur the odium and the infamy of voting
for a return to the system of slavery, are negroes themselves, whose instincts tell
them, that if really put upon their own resources in communities of white men,
and in no manner propped up or sustained at the expense and degradation of a
greater or less number of whites, whether by servitude, under an oligarchy of
slaveholders, on the one hand, or by negro bureaus, under an oligarch v of Radicals,
on the other, they will gradually fall behind in the career of life, fail to multiply
the inferior race'to which they belong, die out, and become fossilized. While,
therefore, we are firm in the wish and purpose not to have any more slavery in the
South, we are equally firm in the desire and determination to get rid of the negroes
if we can, not by taking from them one drop of blood, not by hurting a single
fibre of hair (or wool) upon their heads, but by colonization, in or out of Mexico;
248 APPENDIX.
and in this effort, which will be in perfect harmony with that wisdom and patriot-
ism, which, through the mighty energies and enterprises of white men, have
brought imperishable greatness and glory to the North, we most earnestly and
trustingly solicit your fraternal co-operation. And then, having at last imitated the
good example which you have held prominently before us for more than half a cen-
tury, but which, in our excest-ive folly and stubbornness, we have untW now rejected ;
having filled our States, as you have h'lled your States, with white people, and not
with such intolerable human rubbish as negroes, Indians, and mulattoes, then we
mean to fight you again ; not with steam-rams, cannon, muskets, bayonets, swords,
nor sabres; not with any of the sanguinary and sorrowfuJ weapons of death,
but with all the pleasing and ennobling agencies of life. Then, for the first time
since you wisely abolished slavery and negroes, and we foolishly retained them,
will it be possible for our States of the South to begin to be equal with your States
of the North. And then, as we all advance onward in the grand march ot improve-
ment, and we want tens and hundreds of thousands of you to come among us,
and be with us and of us, and, at the same time, to aid us, by sound counsel and
otherwise, in the varied and arduous duties and responsibilities which are now
devolving upon us, we shall begin to challenge you in good earnest; not to the
battle-field, but to courteous emulation and rivalry in all of the noble arts and re-
finements, ay, and also occasionally in some of the more innocent and manly
games and sports, of peace and civilization.
APPENDIX II.
" In
writing this book, it has been no part of my purpose to cast unmerited
opprobrium upon slaveholders, nor to display any special friendliness or sympathy
for the blacks. I have considered my subject more particularly with reference to
its economic aspects as
regards the whites, not with reference, except in a very
slight degree, to its humanitarian or religious aspects."
Without going into the body of the book, these quotations from the dedication
and the preface, ought, it seems to me, to be quite sufficient ; but, if you will
grant me the space, I will bring forward three or four additional extracts. On
page 145, 1 said:
"All mankind may or may not be the descendants of Adam and Eve. Incur
own humble way of thinking, we are frank to confess, we do not believe in the
unity of the races."
On page 85, 1 said :
" Confined to the
orginal States in which it existed, the system of enforced
servitude would soon have been disposed of by legislative enactments, and long
before the present day, by a gradual process that could have shocked no interest
and alarmed no prejudice, we would have rid ourselves not only of African slav-
ery, which is an abomination and a curse, but also of the negroes themselves,
who, in our judgment, whether viewed in relation to their actual characteristics
and condition, or through the strong antipathies of the whites, are, to say the least,
an undesirable population."
On page 143, the country, at the time I wrote, having been in a comparatively
wealthy and condition, I advocated the raising of a large sum
" One-half uncrippled
:
quote from the book a single page, paragraph, sentence, line, or word, that, when
critically examined and fairly interpreted, will justify the assumption that I ever
regarded the negro otherwise than as a very inferior and almost worthless sort of
man, not to be kept in slavery, increased, and retained among us, but to be freed,
colonized, justly and liberally provided for, and then put wholly upon his own
resources, and left to himself.
My opposition to slavery (and, If possible, I am more opposed to it now than I
was ten years ago) looked to the ultimate whitening up of all the Southern States,
and not to the spreading, nor to the continuance of that foul blackness and discol-
oration of them which then existed, which still exists, and which the radical party
are now viciously and criminally endeavoring to perpetuate. No worker in wood
ever grooved a plank with more set purpose to introduce therein the tongue or the
dovetail of another plank, than I wrote the " Impending Crisis " with the fixed
"
determination, if spared, to follow the same, in due time, with AVyo<ye." The
abolition of slavery was only a necessary step, a .-///( qua non, toward tbe accom-
plishment of a still nobler work, which, despite the formidable opposition encoun-
tered through the baseness, the treason, and the tyranny of a usurpatory Congress,
is now in rapid process of consummation. A few years more, and the United
States of America, if not the whole of America, will be found to be happily and
prosperously and permanently peopled by vigorous and all- triumphing offshoots
of the white races only.
INDEX.
Adams, John Quincy, 178. Bruce, James, 15, 64, 75, 166.
Albinos, 223-226. Burton, Richard F., 32, 40, 51, 52, 63, 81,
Alexander, James Edward, 31, 76, 120. 82, 83, 89, 90, 99, 104, 114, 119, 120,
American Writers on the Negro, 173- 128, 138, 141, 142, 154, 155, 163, 164,
216. 165.
Andersson, Charles John, 48, 49, 86, 95, Butcheries and sacrifices (human) in
Baker, Samuel White, 16, 17, 33, 34, 42, Caillie, Re'ne', 43, 101, 146, 147, 156.
50, 75, 85, 93,94, 115, 116, 118, 119, Campbell, John, 92, 111, 144, 156.
Barrow, Sir John, 120, 159, 168. Caucasian Races, increasing Pre-emi-
Barth, Henry, 40, 51, 78, 84, 91, 95, 129, nence and Predominance of the,
141. 227-236.
Begging, Extortion, and Bobbery in Clapperton, Hugh, 38, 48, 80, 97, 103,
Negroland, 82-89. 108, 109, 121, 127, 142, 143.
Britton, Hamette G., 27, 49. Cruickshank, Brodie, 41, 58, 135, 145.
251
252 INDEX.
Fisher, Sydney George, 196, 197, 231. 92, 97, 100, 105, 109, 126, 153, 167.
Foote, Andrew H., 28, 30, 65, 136. Lawlessness and Misery in Negroland
Freeman, J. J., 21-23, 31, 68, 71, 121, 159, 89-94.
Lincoln, Abraham, 180, 181. Ogilby, John, 15, 16, 78, 87, 96, 98, 128,
Moffat, Robert, 30, 48, 100, 132, 150, Reade, Winwood, 32, 57, 77, 90, 95, 104,
Moore, Francis, 51, 79, 98, 118, 132. Richardson, James, 61, 125, 144, 167.
Morton, Samuel George, 209, 210. Robbing Strangers in Negroland, 82-89.
Mulattoes, the Offspring of Crimes
against Nature, 216-223. Sacrifices, human, in Negroland, 19-
25.
Mumbo Jumbo in Negroland, 117, 118.
Scott,Anna M., 87, 114, 137, 146.
Mungen, William, 190, 191.
Seward, Wm. H., 179, 180.
Murray, Hugh, 19, 20, 41, 49, 65, 86, 89, Shamelessness and Nakedness in Ne-
110, 137, 142, 155, 167. groland, 75-78.
Skulls, human, as sacred Relics and
Nakedness and Shamelessness in Ne- Ornaments in Negroland, 25-29.
groland, 75-78. Slavery and the Slave-trade in Negro*
National Intelligencer, 129. land, 37-44.
New American Cyclopaedia, 225. Smith, Charles Hamilton, 41, 170, 229,
New York Tribune, 136, 173. 230.
Night Carousals in Negroland, 80-82. Speke, John Banning, 42, 50, 98, 123,
North British Review, 229. 130, 131, 160.
Nott, Josiah Clark, 211, 216, 233. Steedman, Andrew, 45, 72, 144.
22
254 INDEX.
Untruthfulness of the Negroes, 97, 98. Wilson, J. Leighton, 21, 39, 45, 65, 66,
148. 151,226.
63, 77, 84, 112, 125, 147,
Witchcraft in Negroland, 45-57.
Van Evrie, J. H., 211, 212.
Wrangling and Lawlessness in Negro-
Venality of the Negroes, 98-100.
land, 89-94.
Voracity and Gluttony of the Negroes,
100-102.
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WOJOQUE
A QUESTION FOB A CONTINENT. By Iliuton Kowan Helper, of
North Carolina, author of " The Impending Crisis of the South." ***One
large handsome 12mo. volume, 479 pages, elegantly printed and bound
in cloth. Price, $2.00.
now they are scarce, only the most intelligent surviving and remaining- among u. It is a
fact, which any careful observer may verily, that where the negro is least known, he is
most respected, and where he most nboundj he is least appreciated, ns an intellectual being,
while in all region* where white Inlior is better adapted to the soil, he is regarded, from
every point of view, as an intolerable nuisance. Thusitwas in Vermont, where mgroes
were nearly as scarce as monkeye, the good people took such a deep interest in them,
1
thiit their State passed the first 'Personal Liberty Bill; while Kentucky and Maryland
which two States lost ten times as many slaves as all the other Southern States combined,
the border free States had such an abhorrence of the blacks, that thsir Legislatures passed
stringent laws to deprive those who were among them, the rights of citizenship and domi-
cile. * * * The and the Ifadicals are now at and it is ' a
Republicans loggerheads ; very
pretty quarrel,' which Mr. Helper's new bonk will greatly Intensify." Boston Courier.
against negro suffrage, or the recognition of nny of the dark races as the equal of the
white man, socially, intellectually, or politically. They will find in it the most slashing
and conclusive argument! ever published on their side of the paramount political question
now agitating the country. The author gives lists of many of the great men in politics,
governmenr, literature, science and the arts, from the earliest ages down to the present,
dy; und the name of no negro nppenrs among them. The argument is, thatiftha
negro had been anybody, he would have given evidence of the fact at some period of his
existence: that white mm have done all the thinking a-nd working that have moved the
world; the negro, meanwhile, remaining a mere Mack and barren spot on its surface.
This is tfojoqur,." St. Louis JCcpublicaa.
"This work is eertninly very unique, and gives evidence of a great deal of literary
labor. It is largely a compilation or series of extracts from various well known writers on
the subject of the negro race, and of the relation of the two races, white and black, in the
gated the subject has been led to conclude namely, that the negro race is hopelessly in-
ferior to thewhite race, and can never remain among the whites upon an equality. Mr.
Helper is, we think, quite right in his impression, that the gnat body of the white people-
in the United States do not desire, and do n"t intend to have negroes hung permun-
entlv round thwir necks by lllack Republican Congressmen," Pittsbltrff Post.
" Joke or
Xojoque, this is a very funny book. The author wants to write all the negroes
out of America, and nut only thut, but to sweep away the colored nice*, both blnck and
brown from the whole habitable globe, and have it peopled only by ' the heaven-descended
and incomparably superior white r.ice of mankind.' This is the legitimate conclusion of
that theory of awhile man's country to which some of our people are so devotedly attached.
How they must exult over Mr. Helper's array of figures and authorities! "Portland
Transcript.
...
. . .
Joh Billing! on Ice A rich and racy new comic illuatrated book, . .
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How to Make Money, an.l II. ,w to Keep it A valuable book for every one, $1.50
;
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ff These books are a!l bciiiitifully bound are gold everywhere and
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DlSCHARGE-URl]
u> 1